























V'^^ 
































- ^ V 



^^•n*.. 















^' .^-^^-^ V 







xPr.. 




c^^^ 





























^^0^ 











'^0^ 




'- ^-.xi^ 







•*i. ".^1 






^.' 



o^ 



•■' ov 



^^^ 

.-*'' 













•>o. 









^o 






• • • ' • A^ 












.*' .• 






^-<. 






0^ s ' • • ' •^ 









i; 



-^< r "^ 









J'^ '"^ 



\ 






:f 






'-> 









'^ 



A -5- 






■<^. 







'i,~iiVv^>t^ 



■Co. '► -^o-' «."<" o_, tr^.*' \0 






. ' « • * \ * ^ J 
















A* . . ' ' • » •** ^0^ ° " ' • O A* . « ' • " 









.N-^ 













FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING MADE IN 1830 



The Book of Boston 

Fifty Years' Recollections of the 
New Eiiuliiiid Metropolis 



BY 

EDWIN M. BACON, A. M. 

I'oKMhR Editor of the Boston Advertiser, the Boston Post and 

OTHER Boston Newspapers. Author of "Bacon's Dictionary 

of Boston," "Walks and Rides in the Country Round 

About Boston," "The Connecticut River and 

^^E \^LLEY OF the CONNECTICUT," ETC. 



,^- / 








1916 



he Book of Boston Company 

112 W'atkk Street, Boston, Massachusetts 

Edwin M. Bacon, Editor 
M. M. IMarcy, Manager 




\'ilA% 




Copyright 1916 
By GUSTA E. bacon 

Administratrix 



THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON 



CONTENTS 

» — « — 

PACK 

chai'Ti:k 1 

riic 1 listoric luwn 9 

C11AI''I'1'.R II 
The Boston of Kitty Years .\|l;u 45 

CIIAl'TI'.R 111 
Coiunicrcial ami .Manulactiirim,' i'mstnii 6i 

CII Al'TI-R ]\- 
Boston"s .\ccess to the Sea 77 

chapti<:r \- 

The City's I'.xiJaiision 84 

CilAl'Tl-.k \1 
How Boston Transports Its Citizens 94 

ClIAl'Tl'.R \'II 
The City's Social Advantages 116 

ClIAl'Tl'.R \ 111 
Literary lloston i-i^ 

CllAl'Tl-LR IX 
J listoric Spots in Hijstoii 130 

CHAPTER X 
Boston's Park System 149 

CHAPTER \1 

The Religions nl' llostun 161 

CHA1'TI-:R XII 
The .Mnnici])ality 179 

CHAPTl-R Xlll 
Puhlic and Xotahle Pnildings 200 



V 



CONTENTS 

PAUE 

CHAPTER XI \- 
Educational Advantages of Boston --7 

CHAPTER XV 
Music and Fine Arts 245 

CHAPTER XVI 
Accountancy -7^ 

CHAPTER X\ll 
Medicine and Surgery 283 

CHAPTER X\TH 
Boston's Wool Trade 309 

CHAPTER XIX 
The Bar of Boston 384 

CHAPTER XX 
How Boston is Fed 484 

CHAPTER XXI 
Boston's Fishing Industry 5^3 

CHAPTER XXII 
The City's Anuisements 518 

In Menioriani 520 

Index to Biographies 528 







Ck.C*SI\ 




TH I. B'ls I'lN II 




I HE intent uf this bodk is to tell the story of Fifty Years ok 
liosTox, the stor}- of the progress and development i)f the city 
in the last past half centnry and of the institntions and men 
identified with it, thmngh a series of reminiscences rather 
than in the formal manner of the direct historical narrative. 
Historv and biography indeed are woven into the relation, 
hut with lighter thread, though none the less accurate, than in the C(.)nventional 

wel). 

The reminiscent method w a> adopted l)ecause as a resident of Boston for 
the most part of this eventful half century, as an active journalist fnmi the 
earlv eighteen sixties, and a managing or a chief editor of Boston daily news- 
papers for considerable periods, the editor has seen Boston grow from the 
interesting but little hist<iric city of fifty years back into the splendid metrop- 
olis of light and leading of today: and through his newspaper connections 
has come in touch directly or indirectly with leaders of the epoch reviewerl, 
merchants, financiers, professional men, politicians, officials of city and state, 
the master minds of the community that "'make the wheels go roimd." Dur- 
in-f this time he has seen the rise of many individuals and firms who have 
left their impress on trade, and commerce and indu>tr\ ; has seen great changes 
wrought in the physical and spiritual city; the development of great institu- 
tions, edticational, learned, devoted to the arts and sciences, that have made 
Boston a treasure house for American scholars and students; and the initiation 
of jiulilic utilities of subsequent country-wide adopti<in. 

Although the storv of the evolution of all the greater American cities is 
wonderful and worth the telling, yet certain developments in Boston within 
the ])eriod covered by this work are of particular moment, especially since 
it was the parent city of the telephone and of the electric subway; and since 
it was also "the first American seaboard cit\- to take advance steps in regard 
to the systematic development as a port. 

While this story might well have been told by any trained newspaper 
man, the editor feels himself particularly fortunate as the narrator in that 
it has been his personal privilege to come in direct contact with various lead- 
ing citizens who have had the commanding influence in certain formative 
periods of the city's comparatively recent growth. 
Bn.slitit, Massachusetts 




Uriizi'V!.', !'y il . I^nuis OUoson 
THE OLD STATE HOUSE 

AS IT APPFAki TODAY AMID ITS MODERN" SURROUN'DIXGS 




THE HISTORIC TOWN 

A Backward Glance at the Boston of Coeony and Pkovince 
Times and of the Early Nineteenth Century 




'^^^''^^^j^^IRFXIMINARY to the story of Boston's i^ast half-century 
drawn from ])ers(.inal recollections, let us lake a .t^lance at the 
historv of earlier I'lOston as tokl in the records, and in a 
rapid survev recall its story from the time of the hegiiining 
of tlie historic town as a "metropolis in the wilderness" two 
hundred and eig'hty-six years ago, up to the sixties of the 
nineteenth century when nur reminiscent narrati\e hegins. '1 hus we may 
have a proper background fur dur picture. 

Boston dates officially fnmi Sei>teml)er 17 (7 old style), 1O30, with the 
passage bv the Court of Assistants i)f the C(il(in_\- of the Massachusetts Bay, 
sitting at Charlestown, four months after the arrival ni tlie \\'inthr()]) com- 
])anv and the Colon\-'s jiractical beginning (jn the soil, of the order: — "That 
1"riniontaine v^hrdbe called Hnstdn; Mattapan. Dorchester; i\: y' towne \pon 
Charles Ryver, ^\'atertl;)wn." 

Trimountain was the Knglish name that the first colonists at Charlestown 
had given tlie ]ieninsula across the Charles, which, as seen from that point, 
appeared to consist of three hills, and the loftiest with three peak.s — or, as 
their phrase was, "a montaine with three little hills (jn the t("ip of it": the same 
name thev also applied to the dominant elewation. The Indian name of the 
peninsula, "^lushauwomak" or "Mishawmut. ' which the colonists contracted 
to "Shawmut," some local historians, mindful of the sweet springs which pri- 
marily attracted the colonists to the place, have interpreted as "fountains of 
living water"; but the meaning- which the philologist, J. Hammond 'i'ninibull, 
learned in Indian nomenclature, has given it, is less poetic but uioi" ])ractical 
- — -"A place to go to b\- boats," or "to which boats go," or "The boat landing 
l)lace." 

Mattapan was the Indian name of the country that adjoined the neck of 
laud, now South Boston, earlier Dorchester Heights, upon the south side of 
^\ liich the company of the "Dorchester men," as the ])ioneer Bay Colony emi- 
g-rants from Dorset and Devon were designated, established themselves and 
had their town underway a week before the arrival out of the Winthrop com- 
])aii\'. Thev had come, a b.-md of iiiic hundred and foiT\- in all. in a ship by 
themselves — the ".Mar\- and John," — iiidei)endently of the Winthroj) fleet, 
and had arrived in this harbor a fortnight earlier than the ".\rbella" and her 
consort warjied into the h;iib(ir at Salem. A week, bowe\er, was consumed 
in casting about for a sati>lactor\- ])lace for a settlement, their pl;uis b;i\ing 



10 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

been roughl\- disarranged by tbe action of their ship's master. They had 
contracted to be dehvered at the mouth of the Charles River, but Captain 
Squeb (delectable name) refusing to take them further than Nantasket Point, 
Hull, — put them and all their goods ashore here, and so left them "in a forlorn 
place in this wilderness" to shift for themselves. After a coasting party had 
made an adventurous expedition up the Charles, and had almost decided upon 
what afterward became Watertown for the seat, the nearer Mattapan was 
chosen. The occupation of Mattapan was on June i6 (6 O. S.), and from 
that date Dorchester is reckoned. Thus what is today the Dorchester district 
of Boston antedates Boston proper by three months. The founders of Dor- 
chester expected it to be made the capital of the colony, and become the prin- 
cipal town. When Boston was established as the capital Dorchester exceeded 
it in population, and was described as the "greatest town in New England." 
The Roxljury district also antedates Boston proper, the town of Roxbury, 
founded by William Pynchon of the Bay Colony leaders, having been begun 
the first week of July, 1630. It was naively described by a contemporaneous 
historian in 1634 as "a fair and handsome country town, the inhabitants of 
it all being very rich." 

Charlestown was the first permanent settlement in Massachusetts Bay 
(unless Winnisimmet which became Chelsea where two or three English 
planters were settled as early as 1625 is to be so reckoned), and was instituted 
to establish possession by the Massachusetts Company in the disputed territory 
of "the Massachusetts," the term then for the country lying- around the inner 
bay from Nahant to Point Allerton, and about the Charles River. 

This region was covered in the territory conveved 1:)y the Council for 
New England to the Massachusetts Companv in London, Alarch iq, 1O27- 
1628, but claims to the most part of it were entered under the grant of Decem- 
ber, 1622, to Captain Rol.iert Gorges, younger son of Sir Ferdinando, which 
embraced the mainland on the northeast side of Massachusetts Bay, together 
with the shores and coast ten English miles from the Charles Ri\-er north 
toward Salem, and thirty miles into the country. Before the sale by the 
Council to the Massachusetts Compau}', or iierhajis at about that time, John 
Oldham, an energetic Indian trader in ^Massachusetts Bay, a sometime tur- 
l)ulent member of the Plymouth Colony and, banislied therefrcini for "sedi- 
tion" and "mischief making" becoming a first settler at "Natascot" — Hull — ■ 
obtained from John Gorges, brother of Captain Roljert to whom upun R(jb- 
ert's death descended his rights, a lease of that ]iart of the territorv which 
lay between tlie Charles and Saugus Ri\-ers; and earl_\- in the summer of 1628 
he was sailing for England there to clinch his claim. Then followed Sir Wil- 
liam Brereton, a London merchant adventurer, with a claim based on a deed 
from John Gorges, in January, 1628-1629, of lands above the Charles River 
mouth including the territory covered by Oldham's lease ; and also of the 
island in Boston harbor which became East Boston, and its neighbor, Breed's 
Island. 

When upon the accjuisition by the Massachusetts Company of the Council 
grant John Endicott was sent out in the "Abigail" with his little company of 
emigrants and larger band of servants, sailing June 20, 1628, he was directed 
at once to occupy this disputed region. Among the emigrant passengers of 
the "Abigail" were three brothers, Ralph, Richard and William Sprague, 
from Dorsetshire, young men of parts (the eldest but twentv-five) and of 
good estate, coming out "at their own cost." Immediatelv after the arrival 




PRESENT DAY VTKW OF PARK STREET AND THE CAPITOL 

THE COMMON ON THE LEFT. THE BUILDINGS ON THE RIGHT NOW GIVEN OVER TO BUSINESS 

HAVE BEEN PROMINENT IN THE CITV's HISTORY 

Dra'^L'ing by U I utti^ i'.U-it^on 



12 THE BOOK 0^^ BOSTON 



at Salem the sixth of September, these brothers with three or four others, 
presumably of Endicott's company, "by joint consent and appro1.)ation" of 
Endicott (so runs the orig-inal historical narrative which is substituted for 
lost Chariest own records) journeyed through the woods to explore the coun- 
try westwards and find a suitable place in the claimed parts for occupation. 
So they came to the tip of the peninsula between the Mystic and the Charles, 
which the natives called "JMishawum," and which was "full of Indians," with 
one white man, an Englishman, and his family, livingf amicably among them. 
And here, making friends with the aborigines, and obtaining the free consent 
of the voung sachem, the eldest son of the chief who had recently died, a 
youth "naturally of a gentle and good disposition," called by the English 
"Sagamore John," they "took up their abode," and so possession of the land. 
On March four of the following year — 1628-1629 — the Massachusetts Com- 
pany obtained their charter from the King, confirming the Council purchase, 
and thereupon they contracted with Thomas Graves, an engineer, of Graves- 
end, immediately to go to New England in their interests to "discover mines, 
erect fortifications, make surveys," and particularly to lay out their capital 
town. Graves came out with the second expedition, sailing April twenty-fifth, 
1629, which brought to Salem the ministers Francis Higginson, ancestor of 
the distinguished Cambridge and Boston Higginsons, and Samuel Skelton, 
with three hundred other passengers; and a letter of instructions from the 
Massachusetts Company's managers directing him "with all speede" to send 
forty or fifty persons to "Mattachusetts" Bay, to inhabit there and further 
strengthen the Company's possessions. So Graves, arri\'ing at the end of 
June or the first of Jnl\-. straightway proceeded with a considerable band of 
colonists to strengthen the Spragues' settlement on the Charles, "and thus 
throw greater imiiediments in the way of" the territory's " being occupied 
and retained b}- Mr. Oldham." Graves laid out the town conveniently, and 
set his men to work building a "Great House" for such of the Massachusetts 
Company's leaders as were "shortly to come over." And then Mishawum 
was gi\-en its English name of "Charlestown" from the name of the ri\-er. 
Accordingly the date iif the town's beginning is generally given in the his- 
tories of Charlestown as July fourth, 1629. But the true date of this first 
permanent settlement of the Bay Colony in Massachusetts Ba_v and in the 
present limits of Boston, is September, 1628, and the real founders were the 
worthy brothers Sprague and their three or four associates whose names are 
unkncjwn. 

All three of the brothers became men of standing and influence in the 
developing Colonial life. Ralph and Richard were valuable citizens through 
the remainder of their days in Charlestown and in Boston. Each in succes- 
sion was captain of the Charlestown trainband. Ralph was for several years 
a selectman and a deputy to the General Court. Richard became a shipping 
merchant in Boston. William, the youngest, was a forerunner of the pioneer 
settlers of the old colony town of Hingham, he having visited the place before 
the settlement was begun, wdien on a ]3rospective along-shore trip in a boat 
from Charlestown in 1629. Later, in 1636, he removed to Hingham, in com- 
pany with Anthony Eames, an early settler of Charlestown, whose daughter, 
Millecent, he married, and thereafter was identified with that town. From 
the three brothers are descended the large and notable Sprague familv in 
America, members of which have been prominent and influential in modern 
Boston and Massachusetts affairs. 



THK HOOK OF ROSTOX 13 

Wlifii Chark'stiiwn was l)ei;iin in 1628, there were already settled al)c:iut 
the inner bav a number of Englislmien besitles Thomas W'alford, whom the 
Spragiies found conifortal)ly seated at Mishawum. All, presumably, were 
"Gorges men"; and most of them had come up from "W'essagusset" — Wey- 
mouth — when the Gorges settlement there was broken up, or divided, the 
year after the return of Robert Gorges to England in 1625. At "W'inni- 
simmet" now Chelsea, was Samuel Maverick, gentleman, comfortably and 
securely, seated in his fortified "Palisade House," on the present L'nited 
States Naval Hospital grounds; he occupied later "Xoddle's Island" t l{ast 
Boston) where the earlier Boston historians placed him fnim the beginning. 
Maverick had established himself at Winnisimmet as early as 1624, so Mellen 
Chamberlain in his "Documentary History of Chelsea" states, then a young 
man of twentv-three. He was apparently a connection of John Maverick, 
the minister, who came over with the "Dorchester men" and began Dor- 
chester; but he could not have been the minister's son, as some have assumed. 
Chamberlain described him as a trader for furs with the Indians and with 
the settlers and fishermen along the coast. He had a coasting ship of his 
own, and sometimes ventured to Virginia. There were also at Winnisimmet 
two or three others in 162S. On Thompson's Island where is now the cen- 
tury old Farm and Trade School, for boys, was the sometime seat of David 
Thompson, gentleman, an early agent of the Gorges in New England, and 
his "castle" of logs. Thompson had died before 1628, and his widow was 
then living here. A few years later she became young Maverick's wife, and 
moved over to his then home on Noddle's Island. At "Shawmut," all alone, 
was William Blaxton, minister, a bachelor, yet a young' man, not much above 
ihirtv, living in peaceful seclusion among his books in his cottage on the 
riverside slope of the three-peaked hill, and cultivating his garden of English 
roses and his orchard beside a sweet spring. These settlers were called by 
the new comers the "old planters," and were Episcopalians. Blaxton (the 
name is variously spelled — Blakiston, Blakeston, Blackstone, but Blaxton, 
Thomas C. Amory, his memorialist tells us, was the spelling he himself 
adopted ) — Blaxton, indeed, was a non-conformist, but of a mild ty]>c, and he 
still wore his canonical coat. 

The harbor thus early was frequented by coasting traders, a fleet of 
some fifty sail annually trading along the coast, and Nantasket Point was a 
little seaport where the scattered planters met these traders with their furs 
and truck from the Indian trade. ( )l(lham, finall\- drop])ing his claim, affili- 
ated with the Bay Colon\- folk, and became an important man in the Water- 
town settlement. Later he was a pioneer ad\enturer in the Connecticut 
Valley and l>ecame one of the founders of ^\'ethersfield, on the Connecticut 
River. His end was tragic, lie was murdered bv a jiartv of Connecticut 
Pe(|Uods in i6_^fi, when he was "out a' trading" in his pinnace in Long Island 
Sound. And his killing led to that battle ofY Block Island l)etween the In- 
dians who had taken his vessel, and Ca])tain John Gallop — the frunous first 
pilot of Boston harbor, and for whom (jallop's Island here is named — wiio. 
also a' trading, hapi)ened along in his pinnace, which Cooper in his "Xaval 
History of the L^nited States" de.scribes as "the earliest .sea fight of the 
nation." and of which AA'inthrop first tells the story most graphically in his 
"Journal." Sagamore John remained the loyal friend of the colonists till 
his untimel}" death from smallpox, with "about all his people" in earl\- 
December of 1633. 



14 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Bv midsummer of 1629 the Charlestown settlement numbered an hun- 
dred men, women, and children, li\-ing in temi)orary huts and tents; and 
o-lowing reports were sent back to England of its promising state. So the 
pioneer town stood ready for the occupation by Winthrop and his associate 
leaders, bringing out with them the charter of the Colony of the IMassachu- 
setts Bay when they arrived at Salem, June, 1630, in the flagship or "admiral"' 
of their fleet of eleven or twelve sail, all but one other — the "Jewel," master 
of the fleet — yet on the way, to begin colonial government on the soil. 

The first thought of these Bay Colony leaders, however, may have been 
to take Salem for the seat of go\-ernment. But the jjeople there, including 
"old planters" and new settlers, were found to be in a weak and almost starv- 
ino- condition; and the place "pleased them not." Accordingly five days after 
their landing they set ijut to seek the more suitable place on the eastward 
shore. As Winthrop quaintly records: "Thursday 17 (o. s. — 27th), we went 
to Mattachusetts to find out a place for our sitting down." The "we" com- 
prised with Winthrop, we may fanc_\', the resolute Thomas Dudley, deputy 
oovernor, to become governor repeatedly in succeeding years; Isaac Johnson, 
"the greatest furtherer of the plantation,"' next to Winthrop the foremost 
man, husband of the Lady Arljella, the Earl ijf Lincoln's daughter, in com- 
pliment to whom the "admiral"' of the fleet was named, and who came out 
with her husband; Sir Richard Saltonstall; Simon Bradstreet, Dudley's son- 
in-law, whose wife, Anne Bradstreet, was to blossom as "the first American 
poet," and himself to remain in the public service for many years, long to 
survive his fellow-leaders, and to become the "Nestor of New England"' ; 
William Coddington, merchant, to become the first governor of Rliode Island ; 
Increase Nowell, "a man of family and of education," to serve for many 
years as secretary of the Colony; William Pynchon, merchant, "a gentleman 
of learning and religion"' early to found Roxbury, and later Springfield on 
the Connecticut giving it the name of his English home-town. They came 
down by water, and that night "lay at Mr. Maverick"s," generously enter- 
tained by the hospitable young planter at his palisaded house. They viewed 
the Charlestown plantation and the country up the Mystic as far, perhaps, as 
Medford; and before the next day had ended they were on their way back 
to Salem with the decision of most of them upon Charlestown. A second 
party followed "to approve or dislike" their judgment, and these found a place 
which suited them better "three leagues up Charles River." Nevertheless the 
judgment held, and at once removal was made by practically all of the com- 
pany that hatl then arrived, and Charlestown occupied as the seat. Within 
the first week of Julv the greater part of the fleet had reached port; the 
latest to arrive , the "Mayflower,'" the "Whale,"' the "Talbot,"" and the 
"Trial" coming direct to Boston harbor, not stopping at Salem, and landing 
their passengers on the Charlestown shore. 

Thus "a multitude of people amounting- to about fifteen hundred" (the 
historical narrative's statement, more accurately under one thousand) were 
added to Charlestown's population. The settlement u]5on closer inspection 
was found to be in a far less prosperous condition than had been reported the 
previous year. Some three score of the original settlers had died ; many of 
the survivors were ill ; most were complaining of their woeful plight. The 
new comers, however, began cheerfullv Iniilding their homes. Fortunately 
it was summer time. The governor and a numl)er of the leaders established 
themselves in the "Great House" which Graves had built, while the "multi- 



16 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

tude" set up cottages, booths, and tents about "Towne Hill," rising back of 
where is now the Charlestown District Alunicipal Building. But the cheer- 
fulness of the new comers was not of long duration. Sickness soon fell also 
upon many of them. They had had a wearisome and weakenmg voyage out : 
some of the ships were seventeen, some eighteen weeks on the way. As the 
summer grew hot the scur\-y increased, through lack of proper shelter, and 
by reason of "wet lodges in their cottages." Other distempers also prevailed. 
Much suffering resulted from the use of a brackish spring in the sands by 
the shore, the one source of water supply, for the Colonists "generally 
notioned no water good for a town but running springs." Provisions early 
fell short, many of the Colonists coming ill-pro\-ided, supposing from the 
stories sent to England, that food was abundant here, others improvidently 
bartering their supplies away to the Indians for beaver; and the governor 
despatched a ship to Ireland to buy and hasten back fresh supplies. By mid- 
summer the sickness had become so extensive that the well ones "though 
generally very loving and pittifull" were unable "to tend the sick as they 
should be tended," whereupon "many perished and dyed and were buryed 
about the Towne Hill." Samuel Fuller, the physician of the Plymouth 
Colonv, came up to the aid of the sick. By the close of the hot summer 
nearly two hundred had died. Among these were William Gager, the Com- 
pany's physician ; the wives of Coddington and Pynchon and other leaders ; 
and that foremost leader next to Winthrop, and richest of them all — Isaac 
Johnson. Winthrop recorded the latter death laconically and tenderly, under 
date of September 30: "About 2 in the morning Mr. Isaac Johnson died; his 
wife the Lady Arbella of the house of Lincoln, being dead about i month 
before. He was a holy man and wise, and died in sweet peace, leaving some 
part of his substance to the Colony." The gentle lady, "coming from a para- 
dise of plenty and pleasure in the family of a noble Earldom into a wilderness 
of wants" (Hubbard's, the early N^ew England historian's, phrase), had 
succumbed to the hardships of the voyage, and, unable to accompany her 
husband to Charlestown, had faded away at Salem. A number also, dis- 
heartened, had left and gone back to England on two of the returning ships 
of the fleet. 

Meantime several of the leaders were prospecting the neighboring coun- 
try for a happier town site ; but when reports from London and Amsterdam 
of "some French preparations" against the Colony were received by incoming 
ships, it was resolved "for present shelter," to "plant dispersed!)-.'' There- 
upon Sir Richard Saltonstall with George Phillips, one of the ministers who 
had come out with the Company (ancestor of W^endell Phillips), and "several 
score," began the plantation up the Charles that became W'atertown ; others 
planted on the Mystic, beginning Medford ; others began Saugus which be- 
came L}'nn ; Dudley and Bradstreet began New Towne to become Cambridge ; 
while numbers joined the plantation at Mattapan, and the P3-nchon settle- 
ment of Roxbury. Then, or when the sufifering from the want of water was 
most acute, William Blaxton, the sole tenant of "Shawmut," came across tlie 
river and acquainting the governor of an excellent spring there, courteously 
invited and solicited W' inthrop to occupy his peninsula. And then, this invita- 
tion accepted. Winthrop and the greater part of the Compan\- that yet 
remained at Charlestown removed hither, and Boston was begun. 

Boston was named for old Boston of Lincolnshire, England, the ancient 
St. Botolph's town on the W^itham, from which, or from its part of the 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 17 



country, liad come the leaders termed the "Boston men" — the men of "supe- 
rior wealth and standing," of the eastern counties, who hail come into the 
Massachusetts Company, and to its direction, after the "Dorchester men," of 
the western counties, with win mi the movement for a plantation had orig- 
inated: — and particularly in compliment to Isaac Johnson and the Lady 
Arbella of the old Boston. It was the name, as Dudley stated, that these 
leaders had intended to give the place they "first resolved on." While we 
have the date of the naming of our Boston definitely assigned as the date of 
the foundation of the town — September seventeen, 1630 — that of its actual 
beginning can only be conjectured. 

The historical narrative tells of the removal "after the death of Mr. 
Johnson and di\'ers others." Until the end of Se]5teniber the Court of 
Assistants continued to be held in Cliarlestown. It has been assumed that 
the "Great House" was still Winthrop's home as late as the twenty-fifth of 
October, when he entered in his Journal that often quoted declaration against 
the custom of drinl-cing tiia>ls, wliicli his kinsman and biographer, Roljert C. 
W'inthrop, has pointed to as "the original temperance movement in Massa- 
chusetts, if not in America": — "[October twenty-fifth, 1630] The Governour. 
upon consideration of the inconxeiuences which had grown in I'.ngland b\' 
drinking one to another, restrained it at his own table, and wished others to 
do the like, so as it grew, bv little and little, into disuse." Tlie first mention 
of Boston in Winthrop's Journal is under an Octoljer date, about a month 
after the naming, recording the death of a goat there from eating Indian 
corn. Its first mention ofticially is the record of a General Court — the first 
General Court of tlie Colony on the soil — as held at Boston on October twenty- 
ninth. A month later, November twenty-iunth, Winthrop is found for the 
first time dating a letter to his wife, still in England, "Boston in Massachu- 
setts." And in this letter he writes, "'Sly dear, we are here in a paradise." 
It would seem, howe\'er, that while Winthrop himself was not permanently 
seated here till later, the occujiation was ]iractically begun by the Company 
generally in early October; th;it then "the people began to build their houses 
against winter," as the historical narrative relates. The frame of \\'in- 
throp's house was "in preparation" at Cliarlestown when the removal was 
decided upon, the narrative says, and was carried to the new Boston "to the 
discontent of some." But it seems to have been taken first to "New Towne" 
— Cambridge — and hence brought to Boston. For in December the Colony 
leaders determined to make Dudley's inland New Towne, as best for defence, 
a fortified town, and eventually, perhaps, the seat of government; and it was 
then agreed that the Assistants should build their houses there by or liefore 
the following spring and remove the ordinance and munitions thither. In 
accordance with this agreement the Governor duly set up his house : but the 
others not following with theirs, he removed his. So the agreement was not 
carried out, to the discomfiture of Dudle)-, who complained of a breach of 
promise on the part of Winthro]> with the rest. Subsequently Winthrop 
ex]ilained his course, and produced more choice data for Boston's history in 
his invalualile Journal : "August 3 [1632]. The De]nity, ]\lr. Thomas Dudley, 
being still discontented with the goxernour, partly for tlKit the governour 
had removed the frame of his house, which he had set up at New Town, 
renewed his comi)laints to Mr. Wilson and Mr. Welde, who acquainting the 
go\-ernour therewith, ;i meeting was agreed upon at Cliarlestown. where were 
present the go\ernoiir and deputy, Mr. Nowell, [and the ministers] ^Ir. 



18 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



NT 



Wilson, Mr. Welde, Mr. jMaverick, and Mr. Wareham. The conference 
being begun with calling upon the Lord, the deputy began. . . . The gov- 
ernour answered that he had performed the words of the promise; for he had 
a house up, and seven or eight servants abiding in it by the day appointed; 
and for the removing of his house, he alleged, that seeing that the rest of the 
assistants went not about to build, and that his neighbours of Boston had been 
discouraged from removing thither by Mr. Deputy himself, and thereupon 
had (under all their hands) petitioned him that (according to the promise 
lie made to them when they first sate down with him at Boston, viz., that he 
would not remove except they went with him) he would not leave them — 
this was the occasion that he removed his house." The relations between the 
two worthies were thus strained for a while, and there followed those hot 
little tiffs the story of which makes so lively a chapter in \Vinthrop's Journal. 
But as time went on and Town and Colony developed, these differences be- 
tween the two good and true men softened, and at length were beautifully 
healed, as Winthrop relates with charming cjuaintness in one of his prettiest 
passages. It was at the ceremony of marking the bounds of the great farms 
on the Concord River, in what are now the rural towns of Bedford and 
Billerica, granted each of these worthies by the General Court, in 1638. On 
a day in Mav the two with their witnesses paddled down the loitering stream 
from the little settlement at Concord. Making selection of a point for their 
landing, "they oft'ered each other the first choice, but because the Deputy's 
was first granted, and himself had store of land already, the Governour yielded 
him the first choice. So at the place where the Deputy's land was to begin 
there were two great stones which they called the Two Brothers in remem- 
brance that they were brothers ijy their children's marriage and did so 
brotherly agree, and for that a little creek near those stones was to part their 
lands." The marrying children were Winthrop's daughter Mary and Dudley's 
eldest son, the Reverend Samuel. The "Two Brothers,'' lying- near together, 
close to the river's brink, in Bedford, remain today, with a tablet set in the 
face of each inscribed, that to the South, "Winthrop, 1638," that to the 
North, "Dudley, 1638," the governor's thousand acres spreading oft' south- 
erly from the boulders, Dudley's northerly. 

The predominant features of the peninsula as it appeared to the makers 
of Boston are familiar from much description in local histories, handbooks, 
and lectures. They found it pear-shaped, jutting out between harbor and 
river, attached to the niainkuid l)y a mile-long slender stem: marked by 
abrupt elevations with valleys between : the loftiest elevation, tlie hill with 
three peaks, on the river side, the next in height on tlie harbor front, one at 
the South, the other at the North: sparsely clad with trees, but thick in bushes 
and reeds ; the surface indented by deep coves, inlets of ocean and river, and 
by creeks and ponds: and sea margins wide, flat, oozy. It was in length less 
than three miles, in width, at the l)roadest, Httle more than one mile ; while 
its total area was less than eight hundred acres. 

Unpropitious topographically and too contracted this j^eninsula certainly 
was for the ideal establishment of a great future metropolis. But there was 
the "convenient" harbor, the beautiful tidal harbor as Nature made it. It 
was this harbor's natural advantages, together with its proximity to the 
fisheries which were to become the staple of New England, that made possible 
the commercial Boston which the Puritan founders so enterprisingly pro- 
ceeded to develop on the narrow peninsula as soon as their town was fairly 



THR ]U)()K OF BOSTOX 19 

underway, which was after tlie first disheartening winter of the plantation. 
Then Boston was far from tlie paradise as \\'intlirop had pictured in that 
first joyous Boston-dated letter to the old home. '"The people were necessi- 
tated to li\e on clams and muscles, and gTonnd nuts and acorns," the Charles- 
town historical narrative recorded. The governor himself "had the last hatch 
of bread in the oven," wrote Cotton ]\Iather in his embellished story of this 
first Boston's winter based on tradition, and was "distributing the last hand- 
ful of meal in the l)arrcl unto a poor man distressed by the wolf at the door." 
At this extremity a Fast F)a\' was appointed by the go\-ernor and assistants. 
Then suddenly on a b'ebruary da\- appeared entering the hai'bor the relief 
ship that the go\'ernor and his associates had despatched to Ireland fi3r sup- 
plies, in the summer. She was laden with provisions sufiicient for all. And 
straightway the Fast Dav was changed to one for thanksgi\-ing — the first 
appointed Thanksgi\-ing Day in [Massachusetts. 

The recovery was cpuck, and the spring was full of actixity. On the 
fourth of July the first domestic-built ship was launched, — the little l)ark 
of thirty tons which Winthrop had had l>uilt and piously and poetically 
nametl, "The Blessing of the Ba_\-." She tiiok the water on the Mystic, beside 
the governor's farm and countr\- seat of "Tenhills" (so called from the num- 
ber of little elevations which could be counted upon it, and which can in 
part be traced to this day), and close by the present Somerville end of the 
Wellington Bridge. On the last day of August she went to sea. In October 
she was "on a voyage to the eastward," perliaps trading". The following 
summer she was ad\'enturing "to the southward," coasting "an island over 
against Connecticut called Long Island"; [the narrator is Winthrop in his 
Journal] looking into the Connecticut River; and finally \-isiting the "Dutch 
plantation upon Hudson River called Xew Netherlands." At Long Island 
she took on "store of the best \\ampum peak both white and blue" from the 
Indians there, who were found to be "a very treacherous people," and having 
"many canoes so great as one will carry eig'hty men." .\t the embr^-o New- 
York the captain and crew were "very kindly entertained by Wouter \an 
Twiller; and they bartered with the Dutchmen such commodities as they put 
ofY for some beaver and other tifings." The next year a second ship was 
launched on the Mystic. This, the "Trial" of one hundred tc)ns, built by 
"Governor Cradock's men" — Matthew Craddock, tlie earlier gox'ernor of the 
Massachusetts Company in London, who did not come out, but sent men over 
to work his plantation on the Mystic, opposite Winthrop's Tenhills, originally 
established for ])romoting the fisheries. The next year two more ships w'ere 
turned out at the Cradckjck yard, one of two hundred tons, the other, the 
"Rebecca," a tidy craft of sixty tons. The "Rebecca's" first \o\age was to 
. Narragansett Bay, to buy corn from the Narragansett Indians. Subsecpiently 
she went to the Bermudas and brought back potatoes, oranges, limes. Ship- 
building on the harbor side had then begun, and soon Boston became the 
chief shipbuilder in the Colonies; also the chief carrier for nearly all of them. 
i\nd early Boston shipbuilders were supplying the old home market with Bos- 
ton-built ships. In 1633 William Wood, then visiting New Fngland, de- 
.scribed Boston as "the chiefe place for shii^ping and merchandize." Early 
its commerce with England was more intimate than that of any other Colonial 
port, and it was the most frequented by English shipping, b'arly, too, ships 
from other maritime countries were entering the harbor. Twenty years after 
\\'illiam Woiid. Captain Edward Johnson writes in his (plaint "Wonder-work- 



20 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ing Providence of Sion's Sa\ior," the first history of Massachusetts, of "For- 
reiners" ships, French, Portugal, ami Dutch coming- "hither for Trafiique," 
and pictures Boston as the "\-ery 'Slart of the Land." So through Colony and 
Province days Boston remained the chief port of the continent. 

There were few accessions to the beginners of Boston till the town was 
nearly three years old. In early November in its second year, 1631, the gov- 




FIRST BOSTON TOWN HOUSE 

Built 1657 by Thomas Joy and partner. Burned 1711. "This gallant State House" 
as it was termed by Samuel Maverick, in 1660, stood at the head of State Street, on 
the site of the present old State House. As the first seat of government in Mas- 
sachusetts and New England, it was the scene of stirring events, .'\bove were chambers 
for town meetings, the Governor and Council, Assembly and Courts; below was the 
Merchants Exchange. Here the revolution against Andros broke out; Captain Kidd, 
the pirate, was examined and the witchcraft cases were tried. Here met the Puritan 
elders and under this roof the first Episcopalians worshipped. It was "The Pine Street 
House" of Emerson's Boston Hymn, "The Town Hall" of Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter 
and "The Council Chamber" of VVhittier's King's Missive. 



ernor's excellent wife, Margaret Winthrop, accompanied by his eldest son and 
his wife — the second John Winthrop, later to become the celebrated Go\-ernor 
Winthrop of the Connecticut Colony, — and bringing the other children that 
had remained in England with her, arrived in the same ship, the "Lyon," 
that had brought the minister, John Eliot, the future "apostle to the Indians." 
Upon their landing the governor's family were formallv received, after the 
royal fashion, "by the captains with their companies in arms," and with 
"divers volleys of shott." And for their proper welcome with feasting the 
larder of the governor's "mansion" had been furnished forth by his neighbors, 
and "most of the people of the near plantations." with "fatt hogs, kids, ven- 
ison, poultry, geese, partridges, etc." — a kindly outpouring which moved 
the good man gratefully to record in his Journal, that "the like joy and mani- 
festation of love had never before been seen in New England." In the fol- 
lowing June, 1632, the "\Villiam and Francis," on her second voyage over, 
brought a few more emigrants of note, a number of "honest men" with their 
families, including the minister Thomas ^^'elde, who was to become John 







° 1\ 



'X O 



fe i^ 



22 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

Eliot's colleague at the Roxbury church after Eliot's removal from Boston, 
and later to assist Eliot and Richard Mather, the Dorchester minister, in the 
preparation of the "Bay Psalm Book." Also at the same time arrived the 
"Charles" of Barnstable "with near eighty cows and six mares," and some 
twenty passengers. 

Then in the autumn of the next year, 1633, there came a great acquisi- 
tion to Boston's population by the arriv^al on the "noble ship Griffin" of the 
"choicest freight" of emigrants since that brought by the W'inthrop fleet, 
which so heartened T(jwn and Colony that the event was celebrated by a 
s])ecial Thanksgiving. Winthrop's record of this important arri\-al, and of 
the adxentures of the distinguished Puritan ministers of the company in 
escaping- the clutches of the scouts of the High Court of Commission at their 
departure from England, runs thus: "Sept. 4 [1633]. The Griffin, a ship 
of three hundred tons arrived (having been eight weeks from the Downs). 
This ship was brought in by John Gallop a new way by Lovell's Island, at 
low water, now called Griffin's Gap. She brought about two hundred ]jas- 
seng-ers, having lost some four whereof one was drowned two days before 
as he was casting forth a line to take mackerel. In this ship came Mr. Cot- 
ton, Mr. Hooker, and 'Sir. Stone, ministers, and 'Sir. Peirce, Mr. Haynes (a 
gentleman of great estate), Mr. Hoffe, and man\- other men of good estates. 
They got out of England with much difficulty, all places being belaid to have 
taken Mr. Cotton and Mr. Honker, who had Ijeen long sought for to ha\-e been 
brought into the High Commission: I)ut the master being bound to touch at 
the \\'ight, the pursuivants attended there, and, in the meantime, the said 
ministers were taken in at the Downs. Air. Hooker and Air. Stone went pres- 
ently to New•to^\■n where thev were to lie entertained, and Mr. Cotton stayed 
at Boston." Besides the nn'nisters John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, and Samuel 
Stone (whose names led the erudite punster. Cotton Mather, to his ponderous 
pun in his "Magnalia," that in them "the God of Heaven had supplied the 
colonists with what would in some sort answer their three great necessities. 
Cotton for their clothing. Hooker for their fishing, and Stone for their Iniild- 
ing") and the rich Mr. Haynes, there was a notable group of old Boston 
magnates among- the passengers — Thomas Leverett, a citizen of high con- 
sideration in the English Boston, sometime an alderman there, and the stead- 
fast and influential supporter of John Cotton through Cotton's twenty years 
in the rectorship of the ancient St. Botolph's Church: Atherton Hough (the 
"Hoffe" of Winthrop's record, pronounced as he gave it), wlio had been 
mayor of old Boston ; Edmund Quincey, the progenitor of the Ouincy family 
in America. There were various other members of Cotton's home congre- 
gation, and members of Hooker's. There weve the Hutchinsons, principally 
Mistress Anne Hutchinson, that "pure and excellent w-oman, of high spirit" 
and "a nimble wit," soon to institute in Boston the first woman's mo\-ement 
in America, and to become the central figure about whom raged the "Antino- 
mian controversy" of 1635-1636, which nearly split the Colony in twain; her 
brother-in-law, the minister John Wheelwright who was to be banished with 
her, and her other adherents, and to found Exeter in New Hampshire. 

The town had now been the capital of the Colony for nearly a year, its 
selection ha\ ing finally been made by the vote of the General Court in Octo- 
ber, 1632 — "It is. thought by generall consent that Boston is the fittest place 
for publique business of any place in the Bay" ; — but although "the most 
noted and frequented," Ijeing the place where the colonial courts sat and the 



TlIK ]'AK)K OF BOSTON' 23 



goveniDf dwelt, it was vet, as William Wood wrote, "neither the greatest nor 
the richest" of the Bav plantations. This notable accession of the "Griffin's" 
])assengers, however, most of whom established themselves here, largely 
increased its prestige; and thereafter, with other additions of desirable im- 
migrants repeatedlv made, it grew rapidly Ixith in population and in wealth, 
until by 1O37 it was outranking all the other towns as the most populous and 
the wealthiest. The ininiigratiim to Xew England continued large till the 
meeting of the Long i'arliament in old England, when it suddenly and almost 
whollv ceased. "The Parliament of England setting upon a general reforma- 
tion bnth of Church and ."^tate, the Earl of v^trafford being beheaded, and the 
archbishop (our great enemy) and many others of the great officers and 
judges, bishops and others, imprisoned and called to account, this caused all 
men to stay in luigland in expectation of a new world; so as few coming to 
us, all foreign commotlities grew scarce and our own of no price." So wrote 
Winthrop in his Journal, under date of June, 1641. It was estimated by 
earlier historians that up to this time o\er twentv thousand persons had im- 
migrated to Xew England, brought out in one hundred and ninety-eight 
vessels, and of these a mucii larger number settled in Boston than in any 
other town. Bv 1643 thirt}- towns were within the jurisdiction of Alassa- 
chusetts, of which Boston was the governmental and commercial center. 
Then it was that the division into shires or counties was made by the General 
Court, and Suffolk County was instituted, which at the outset comprised wilh 
Boston the neiglil)oiing towns nf Ro.xbury, Dorchester, and Dedham, and 
Braintree (afterward (Juincx), Weymouth, Hingham, and Xantasket of the 
South Shore. X'ow, or a half <1ozen years later, I'xjstun was grown to that 
description of Captain Edward jdbnsou, written ])resuniably round about 
1649 — "The Ijuildings beautifull and large, sunie fairlv set forth with Brick. 
Tile, Stone and Slate, and orderlv place<l with comeh' streets, whose con- 
tinuall inlargenient pressages some sumptuous Cit_\'." .V (|uarter-ceutury 
later, or about 1675, the estimated |)o|)ulation was about four thousand. At 
the close of the Colonv period, or when the Colony charter was wacated, in 
1684, Boston was credited with six or seven thousand inhabitants; and among 
the.se, according to a genteel old time "Calendar of Wealth, Fashion, and 
Gentility," there were "fifteen or l\vent\- merchants with from thirty thou- 
sand to fi:)rtv thousand dollars each." At the beginning of the Province 
period, in 1(192, or at the ojiening of the eighteenth centur}-, Boston was 
counted the "largest and wealthiest town in America." 

The building of the town was begun at the eastern and northeastern 
bases of the three-]ieaked hill along the une\en lines of the harbor front, and 
about the "Great C<ive"; and in the form of a crescent. The Great Co\e 
made up between the two h;irbor front hills — Fort Hill and Copp's Hill of 
later naming — from jioints about where now are Rowe's Wharf at the South 
and Lewis Wharf at the Xorth ; and cut inside of the present North Street 
and ?\lerchants Row, across State Street, and inside of Kilby Street to Fed- 
eral and Batterymareh Streets. Thus the foot of the present State Street was 
then at high-water mark at abfuit the corner of Merchants Row on the one 
side and Killi\' .Sticet on the other. South of this Great Co\'e was the "South 
Cove," which swe])t West from about the junction of the present Federal 
Street and Atlantic Avenue to Washingti>n Street near Essex and North of 
Beach Street: then .SoiulierK-, parallel with Washington Street, beside land 
a single house-lot dee]), to 1 )o\-er .Street, where the long lean Xeck began, 



24 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

and to the Neck beyond. On the North and the river-side of the peninsula 
was the "North Cove," early coming to be called the "Mill Pond'' from the 
mills erected upon it, making up from Charles River on the North of Beacon 
Hill. This passed Easterly across the present E'nion, Friend, and Portland 
Streets ; Westerly across Pitts and Gooch Streets to Leverett Street, and well 
up toward Temple Street at the foot of Beacon Hill. The high-water line 
crossed the present Cambridge Street at its junction with Anderson Street. 
A creek ran from this cove to the Great Cove making of the North End an 
island. The junction of the present Blackstone and North Streets was covered 
by the tide. On the South side of the Great Cove was a small cove which 
extended from the head of the present Central Wharf, through Liberty 
Square, across Kilby Street, nearly to Congress Street. This early became 
Oliver's Dock. Here entered two creeks, one running down from the present 
Spring Lane, wliere was the "Springgate" of the Colonists, to Liberty Square, 
the other coming from lM"anklin Street. On the North side of the Great 
Cove was another small 'cove, extending from where is now North Market 
Street and the Ouincy Market and over the site of Faneuil Hall, to the 
Westerly side of the present Dock Square. This side cove at once became 
the Town Dock. Back and West of Beacon Hill and the Common, was the 
fourth large co\'e — the "Back Bay," the back basin of the Charles, its tide 
then flowing up the present Beacon Street some two hundred feet above Charles 
Street, up to a pebbly beach on the Common's Western edge, and to the 
present Park Square; and Southward e.xtending to the line of the present 
Washington Street at about where Pleasant Street enters this thoroughfare, 
and sweeping close to the Washington Street line at Dover Street. 

The makers of the town first built within the territory bounded by the 
present Milk, Bromfield, Tremont, and Hanover Streets, Dock Square, and 
the water. The limits soon expanded, reaching at first to the present Summer 
Street, and shortly to Essex and Boylston Streets on the South ; Eastward, to 
the harbor front at and around Fort Flill ; Westward and Northwestward, 
about the North Cove; and Northward, over the North End. The North 
End early became the most populous section and the "court end" of the 
town. It so remained till after the Re\'olution, although in the middle of the 
Pro\'ince period wealth and gentility were being drawn to the region around 
Fort Hill and the "new" South End (the "old" having been at about Milk 
Street) and "Church Green," where now is the junction of Summer and 
Bedford Streets, then fronting the water -with a fine harbor view. Till after 
the Revolution, too, the town's Southern bounds, though formally at Dover 
Street, with a few houses latterly scattered on the highway toward the Neck, 
]>ractically remained at Essex and Boylston Streets ; while the W'estern limits 
were Beacon Hill and the foot of the Common. Beacon Hill Westward, 
with the exception of two or three houses on the Beacon-Street side, first 
here a lane alongside the Common, remained in its primitive state, the loftiest 
of its three peaks rising, a beautiful grassv cone, as high as the present gilded 
dome of the State House, topped by the beacon. In time during the Colony 
and Province periods the margins of the Great Cove and the smaller estuaries 
antl marshes were in part filled in, but the original peninsula of under eight 
hundred acres constituted the town till the opening of the nineteenth century. 
Till after the Revolution no bridge spanned the river. The only across-water 
ways were still by the primitive ferries, while the one land way to the main- 
land remained the long slender tide-washed Neck. 



THK HOOK OK HOSTOX 



The square at the head of tlie iHcsent State Street in the middle of wliich 
is now the Old State House, was at the outset the "^Market Place," the first 
centre of town life. State Street was the first central "Great Street To The 
Sea," early to become the historic Kino- Street. The part uf Washington 
Street extending from Dock S(|uare, or through the present Adams Square, 
bow-shaped to School Street, was the first highway 
Towards I\oxljurie."' C(jurt Street was the "Prison Lane 
iently from the Market Place to the prison (where is now the City Hall 
Annex), earliest of institutions set up, to become the Queen Street of pro- 
vincial Bostiin. Hanover Street was the narrow lane leading to the Charles- 
town and Winnisimmet ferries. School Street was the lane upon which was 
established the first free school, in 1635, which continued in the Boston Public 



'The High Waye 
leading conven- 




OLD FEATHER STORE 



BITLT 16S0 — RAZED ISf.d 



Latin Schi 



hence its name. The first go\ernor's "mansiuu," the first min- 



ister's house, the first meetinghouse, — the latter first public structure to be 
erected, — and the dwellings and warehouses of the first shopkeeper and of 
the wider merchant-traders, were placed on the "Great Street To The Sea." 
Other first citizens located in the neighborhood of the Town Dock. A few- 
were scattered along the "High Waye" toward School and Bromfield Streets, 
round about the "Springgate," and on "Port Lane" — Milk Street's first 
name. Fewer set their houses on the cartway along the Eastern and Xortli- 
eastern spurs of Beacon Hill whence e\olved Tremont Street. Li its second 
year, the year that the town was made the capital, its fortification was begun 
to secure it from attack by sea as well as by land. Works were started at 
Fort Hill, and on Castle Island (now included in the Marine Park at Soutii 
Boston Point) : and a guard was established at the Neck. Later the Neck 
was fortified. In March, 1^)34-1635 the setting up u{ ilie bcacmi on Beacon 



26 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Hill, then Gentry Hill, was ordered, to gi\-e notice to the country of any 
danger appearing or feared. A ward of one person was to be kept here 
through the late spring and summer months, and upon the discovery of any 
danger the beacon was to be tired, an alarm given, and messengers were to 
be sent bv that town in which the danger was discovered to all the other 
towns in the Colony. Happily no occasion arose for warning, and the beacon 
was never fired in its history of nearly a century and a half. 

In the year also that Boston w-as made the capital it was established as 
a market town, and Thursday was made the regular market day. Then the 
country folk flocked hither for barter and trade, and the ]\Iarket Place became 
a scene of decorous animation. At about the same time, or in 1633, the 
"Thursdav Lecture" was instituted. The delivery of this lecture, or mid- 
week sermon, generally by a leading minister of the Colony, was one of the 
features of the Market Day. On this day, too, were not infrequently the 
public spectacles of the harsh punishments for petty misdemeanors as well 
as for graver crimes. In front of the Market Place, where is now the square 
which the Old State House faces, were placed the stocks, the pillory, and the 
whipping" post. The meetinghouses which were used in succession through 
a quarter of a centnr_\^ for the Town's and Colony's Inisiness, the sittings of 
the General and other courts, as well as for church purposes — the first one, 
the little rude structure of one story, plastered stones, and thatched roof, 
set up in the summer of 163J, and its substantial successor erected eight years 
later when the town folk were growing richer, — stood conveniently beside the 
Alarket Place : the first, on the South side, where the Brazier Building is now, 
the other where is the Rogers Building on \\'ashington Street opposite the 
head of State Street. 

In 1634, when the amialile pioneer settler, Blaxton, sold out to tlie then 
inhabitants all his right and interest in the whole peninsula, except his home- 
lot on the Southerly slope of Beacon Hill, of about six acres, Boston Com- 
mon was established. The year before, in -\pril, 1633, the Governor and 
Assistants had granted Mr. Blaxton fifty acres, evidently ignoring his rights 
to the peninsula through a Gorges grant, or otherwise — if he ever asserted 
them, which does not appear — since it lay within the ^Massachusetts Com- 
pany's grant. The jiart of the purchase set aside for the Common, or 
"Travning Field," was this fifty-acre grant, less the six acres of the home- 
lot reserved. For his general release of the whole peninsula Blaxton received 
thirty pounds, "to his full satisfaction." The amount was raised from the 
householders. It had been agreed that each householder should pay six 
shillings: none paid less, some consideralilv more. Blaxton laid out his 
thirty pounds in a "stock of cows"; and then, in the following spring, tired 
of Puritan constraint, he moved away to make a new and freer home further 
in the wilderness. It is the picturesque tradition that when he was about to 
depart he frankly remarked, "I came from England because I did not like 
the Lord Bishops, l.)ut I cannot join with you because I could not be under 
the Lords Brethren." The independent recluse chose another peaceful and 
beautiful spot, near what became Rog-er Williams' Providence, on that part 
of the Pawtucket River afterward named for him, the Blackstone. This 
new home he called, suggestive of his tranquil tastes, "Study Hill." Here our 
first Bostonian lived the remainder of his days, which were long. He died 
at o\er eighty just loefore the outbreak of King Philip's War in 1675. In 
that war his home at Studv Hill and all his books were destroved. His 



THE ROOK OF BOSTOX 27 

ilislike I'c)!" the Lnrds Urctln'cii was e\ ideiitlv nut (k-ei). fur he was wont to 
revisit the tuwn in a friendly way. and at length timk to wife a Boston 
Puritan matron. It is another jM-etty tradition that for his Boston visits he 
used a steer that he had trained to saddle. 

Life in the Puritan town througii the half century of the Colony period 
was indeed austere. The government general and local was most paternal. 
vSumptuary laws closely regulated domestic affairs. Enactments h}- the General 
Court against extravagance, or "hraverx-,-" in apparel of hoth sexes, were early 
and repeated. A law of I'l^i) ''vas directed against the wearing of short 
sleeves h}- women, "wherehv the nakedness of the arme ma\' he disclosed in 
the wearing thereof." .\ law nf 1651 was drawn with fine nicety hetween 
rich and poor, lietween gentlemen and gentlewomen and the people of "meane 
condition," "\\'e cannot hut accompt it o' duty ... to declare o"' utter 
detestation & dislike that men (_)r women of meane conditinn, educations, 
and callinges should take u[)])i)n them the garhe of gentlemen, hy the wear- 
inge of gold or siher lace, nr hiutons, or points at their knees, to walke in 
greate bootes: or women of the same ranke to wear silke or tiffany hoodes 
or scarfes, which though allowahle to persons of greater estates, or more 
liberall education, }et we cannot hut judge it intollerable in persons of such 
like condition," So in jjart runs the neatly draw n preamble to this enactment, 
which prohilnted the wearing of "gold or sih'er lace, cjr gold or silver buttons, 
or any bow lace abo\e two shillings ])er yard, or siher hoode or scarfes" Ijy 
any persons, or "any of theire relations depending uppnn them," whose visible 
estates, real and personal, did not exceed the value of two hundred pounds, 
with these exceptions: the magistrates or other pulslic officers, "their wives 
and children." an\- "settleil niillitar\- officer or soldier in the time of millitary 
service," ami, most cousiderateb", those who had seen better days — those 
"whose education & imployments have been above the ordinary degree, or 
whose estates have been considerable though now decayed." In 1675, when 
the awful shadow of King Philip's \\'ar was upon the Colony, the Court de- 
nounced as most offensi\e at such a time, the "manifestations of pride" in 
costlv apparel and personal adormnent: and it jjarticularly condemned the 
custom by men of wearing "long haire, like women's liaire," made into 
"perewiggs," and by women, "especially the younger sort," of "borders of 
haire, and their cutting, curling, & immodest laying out their haire," Ac- 
cordinglv such customs were prohibited under penalties, as also the "vaine, 
new, strainge fashi(.in w''' naked breasts and armes, or, as it were, pinioned 
w''' the addition of superstitious ribbons both in haire and ap]>arel." 

Trials for "witchcraft" were begun by the General Court sitting in the 
second meetinghouse of the First Church, so early as 1648, forty-four }-ears 
before the outbreak at Salem Village. In June tliat }ear a woman was con- 
victed and hanged on Boston Common. She was one Margaret Jones, of 
Charlestown, a woman doctor. Her medicines were simples and given in 
small doses, "yet ha<l extraordinary viiilent effect." Her touch also appeared 
to have had a mestneric infiuence. Three years later, in i'i5i, a second 
victim was con\icted, and also executed on the Common, This one was a 
Springfield woman. Mar\- Parsons, wife of Fliigh Parsons, a sawyer, who 
had mutuallv accused each other of witchcraft. In ih^h a woman of social 
position in Boston and of higli connection was sent to the grdlows as a 
'"witch." This was Mistress Ann Ilibbens, sister of ex-(iovernor Bellingham, 
that vear the deput\- governor, and widow of William Ilililien^. a leading 



28 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

Boston merchant, and of high imptjrtance in the Colony, an assistant from 
1642 till his death, and sometime agent of the Colony in England. She was 
a woman of high spirit and with "more wit than her neighbors," as was after- 
ward said by one of her defenders. X'arious troubles, and losses in the latter 
part of her husband's life which had reduced his estate, made her crabbed; 
and charged with exercising a turbulent temper, and quarrelsomeness, she 
was censured by the Church before she was brought up for "witchcraft." 
She was first tried and convicted by a jury. Rut the magistrate set aside 
the verdict. Then she was summoned befor-e the General Court. She de- 
fended herself abl}-, but without avail. The Court — bj' a bare majority, how- 
ever — condemned her. The sentence was pronounced in open court by Endi- 
cott, then go\'ernor. She was hanged on the Common on a day in late June, 
presumably after the Thursday Lecture. The next and last victim of the 
delusion hanged in Boston was "Goody" Glover, of the North End, con- 
demned for "bewitching" the children of John Goodwin, "a sober and pious" 
townsman. She was executed in 1688, during the Inter-charter period, four 
years before the Salem outbreak. 

The proceedings against the Quakers liegan in the summer of 1655, 
when ten members of the sect, two women first arriving from England by 
way of Barbadoes, the others coming direct from England, appeared in the 
towm. They were thrown into prison, their books taken from them and burned 
in the ^Market Place, and although there was then no colonial law against 
( juakers, thev were ordered to be banished. The next year laws against the 
"cursed Sect of Hereticks" were duly enacted, and puljlished through the 
streets w ith the beat of the drum. The next }"ear were added laws against 
harl)oring- Quakers, or entertaining one of them for e\en an hour, with harsh 
penalties attached — the cutting off of an ear for a first offence, the other ear 
for a second, whippings, and Ijorings nf the tongue if the offence were per- 
sisted in. Other law's levied a fine upon any person ai)prehended in attending' 
a Quaker meeting, and a fine upon a speaker at such meeting. And [lenalty 
of death was decreed against all bainshed Quakers who shoultl return. 
Then followed the rigorous execution of the laws against those who defied 
them. There were whippings "at the cart's tail with a three-fold knotted 
whip," of Quakers who reappeared or newly came, as they were dri\-en from 
the town. The right ears of imprisoned men were cut oft. \\'omen were kept 
in prison three days without fo(jd, then whipped with the three-fold knotted 
whi]), then returned to prison to remain eight days more, then banished. 
Josiah Southgate was sentenced "to be whipt at a cart's tail, ten stripes in 
Boston, the same in Roxljury, and the same in Dedham." Then, in 165S, 
\\'illiam Robinson and Marmaduke Ste\enson were hanged, and Mary Dyer, 
"after she was upon the ladder with her arms and legs tied, and the rope 
about her neck." was reprieved, at the plea of her son, and banished. But 
the resolute woman returned the next summer, in June, and was then hanged. 
Twenty years before i\Iary Dyer had been one of the close friends and firm 
ailherents of Mistress .^nne Hutchinson in tlie "Antinomian Contro\'ercy" — 
the movement for the "covenant of faith," ag-ainst the subjection to the 
"covenant of works," or the law of works, as essential to salvation, which the 
orthodox ministers preached. With the "King's missive" in i66r. the letter 
of Charles H commanding that the death penalty on Quakers be no more 
inflicted, and those Quakers confined be sent to England for trial, the ])ro- 
ceedings against the sect did not altogether cease. Indeed in 1^73 more 







A BUKGIS MAP OR VIEW OF BOSTON DRAWN IN 172y 



30 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

Quakers were whipped. In 1677 new laws against them were enacted. It 
was in 1677, on a July Sunday, that the Quakeress ^Margaret Brewster, 
arrayed in sackcloth, with ashes upon lier head, her face blackened, and bare- 
foot, with a companion, burst upon the quiet congregation of the South 
]\Ieetinghouse, in sermon time, uttering the warning of a "grevious calamity," 
"called tlie black pox." to come upon the town as a penalty for its persecution 
of the Quakers : for which startling performance she was promptly "whipt 
at the cart's tail up and down the town \\itli twenty lashes." Others appre- 
hended soon after holding a Quaker meeting were whipped. Steadily, how- 
ever, the sect increased in numbers in the town, and by this time they had 
established a regular place of worship. By 1697 — five years after the institu- 
tion of the Province — they had a meetinghouse erected. It was the first brick 
meetinghouse in the town. It stood, a little structure twenty-four by twenty 
feet, on Brattle Street where now is the Quincy House. In 1708, when it 
had become outgrown, a second and larger one was built, on another site. 
This was placed on the present Congress Street, just Xorth of Water, and 
the streetway accordingly came to be called Quaker Lane. Adjoining this 
meetinghouse was the Quaker burying-ground. Here the Quakers wor- 
shipped with diminishing numbers — they began to decrease with the ceasing 
of j^ersecution, and permission to go their own wav uiniiulested — till 1808, 
when the property was sold, and the bur}'ing-ground removed to L\'nn, which 
had then become the chief seat of the Friends in ^Massachusetts. 

.-Vnabaptists, Antinimiians, Episcopalians also continued to he deljarretl 
from the town through the Colony period, or persecuted if they thrust them- 
selves in. Persistent Baptists were whipped, imprisoned, exiled. And when 
at length in 1680. they had managed to erect a meetinghouse, its doors were 
straightway nailed up by oi'der of the go\'ernor and council. This first Bap- 
tist meetinghouse was at the Xorth End, at the corner of Salem and Stillman 
Streets, con\enientl_\- liesiile tlie X'orth Cove, or ]Mill Pond. 

Sundav was the sombrest of days. Between tlie Salsljath hours, from 
sunset of Saturday to sunset of Suntla}-, whicli the minister John Cotton 
instituted, all toil and worldly pleasure were ordered to cease. No strolling 
in the streets, no social visiting were allowed. Travelling from place to place 
save for "necessity, mercy, or attendance upon a place of worship" was pro- 
hibited, under penalties. Xo cart was permitted to pass out of the town. Xo 
horseman or footman, unless able to give a satisfactory statement of the 
necessity of his lousiness could lea\-e it. "W'ards," consisting of a selectman 
or a constable "with two i>r more meet persons," were recjuired to walk the 
town from end to end and enforce these regulations. Constables and tithing 
men must search ti])pling houses for Sabbath breakers. Xoisy oft'enders were 
clapped into a public "cage." The observance nf Christmas and the estab- 
lished church davs — "such festivalls as were superstitiously kept in other 
countrys to the great dishonor of God and offense of others" — was vigorously 
condemned. A celebrator of such festal days "either by forbearing to labour, 
feasting, or any other way," was subject to fine. Discrimination against 
undesirables of whatever sort was rigorous. Strangers of doubtful or unsatis- 
factorv antecedents, and new comers that might pro\-e a burden to the com- 
munitv, were "warned" out of the town, or driven out if they mo\'ed not 
voluntarily. Ci\il rights depended upon Puritan church membership. Xoiie 
but "freemen," wlio must he members of this church and no other, could 
exercise the franchise. The townsman who ct>uld not ol)tain sucli member- 



THF. r.OOK OF BOSTON 



31 



ship, or preterrt'il {<> remain muside the Church, was nevertheless taxed for 
the Clinrch's suppurt, and he must attend its services regularly or sutler the 
])enalty ])rescrihed. This law. adopted in 163 1, stood t<ir more than thirty 
years. Then — in i(M'>4 — it \\as slightly modified hy the jjroxisinn that free- 
holders ratable at ten .shillings, not church members, could be admitted free- 
men if "certitied b\- the ministers to be orthodox in their principles and not 
vicious in their lives," .\s thus amended the law continued substantiall}' in 
force until the beginning' of the I'rcjvince pericxl, in 1G92. 




THE P.All. KK\ I:RE MAP CF BOSTON', ENGRAVED IN 1 786 



The reading matter under illustration is as follows: 

On Friday, Sept. 30th 1768, the ships of war, armed Schooners, Transports S;c. came up 
the Harbour and .Anchored around the Town, their Cannon loaded, a Spring on their Cables 
as for a regular Siege. .•\t noon on Saturday, October the 1st, the fourteenth and twenty- 
ninth Regiments, a detachment from the 59th Regt. and Train of .Artillery with two pieces 
of Cannon, landed on the Long Wharf, they Formed and Marched with Drums beating, 
Fifes playing and Colours fiyiiig up KIXC STREET. Each Soldier having received 16 
rounds of Powder and Ball. 

The eight ships in this fleet consisted of (1) Beaver, (2) Senegal, (3) Martin, (4) Glas- 
gow, (5) Mermaid, (6) Romney, (7) Launceston, (8) Bonetta. 



^'et life was not all sombre in the I'uritan town. With all the colonial 
blue laws, occasions were not wanting for rollicking and fun. Such were the 
military trainings on Boston Common. So was 'Lection Day. The chief 
diversions were jjublic meetings and the Thursday Lecture. Politics and 
religion along with trading most engrossed the townfolk. The town meetings, 
which governed the town, constituted a forum for free discussion, and they 
bred a race of politicians. The efforts to maintain the Colony Charter against 
the repeated assaults of its enemies also lired American statesmen. No 
shrewder play of statesmanship than that in this long struggle is recorded 
in early American history. .\nd all this jtlay centered in Boston. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




When at length the 
charter was revoked, 
and Sir Edmund An- 
dros was installed in 
the Boston Town 
House as "Captain- 
General and Governor- 
in-Chief of all New 
England," under Jfimes 
H's commission, with 
Randolph, that arch 
stirrer up of the Col- 
ony's troubles, busy at 
his schemes, it was a 
Boston minister. In- 
crease Mather, whose 
masterly dip!omac\' as 
the Colony's chief agent 
sent to England to lay 
its case before the 
King, procured the sec- 
ond, or Province Char- 
ter, -with such conces- 
sions in detail as to 
render it, despite its 
establishment of the 
roval control, far more 
liberal than a n >' 
granted any other col- 
ony, as the historians 
point out. Meanwhile, 
as the negotiations of 
Mather and his asso- 
ciates were underway 
overseas, here in Bos- 
ton the Bostoneers, 
with the CDuntry folk 
\\ho had tidcked tc3 the 
capital, had risen and 
deposed Andros and 
imprisoned him with 
his chief men, and 
reinstated a body of 
the old magistrates as 
a "Council of Safety," 
in that "Ijloodles? 
revolution" of April 



rilH BOOK OF BOSTON 



fourth, i()8y. after the arrival nf the iie\\> i>\ Wilhani of Oranyc's landing at 
Torbay and the downfall of the .Stuarts. 'I'liis first forcible resistance to the 
crown in America was at the start essentially a Boston affair. The defence 
of the insurrection, proclaimed from the front of the Town House, was a 
"Declaration of the Gentlemen, Merchants, and Inhabitants of Boston." And 
this was drawn up by that other remarkable Mather — the Reverend Cotton, 
son of the Re\-erend Increase. Samuel Bradstreet, the last oo\ernor under 
the rex'oked Charter, who had lieen the hrst secretar\- of the Colon\-, and for 
many years an assistant, now the sole sui-x-iN-ing associate of W'inthrop, in hi-; 
eighty-se\'entli rear \et lust\', was reinstated with his associates of the 




BOSTON AND THE HARBOR OF 1820 



Council of Safety as Councillors, sitting in the Town Blouse; and govern- 
ment was resumed under the old Charter as though it had not been annulle<l, 
while events from Bjigland were awaited. This government held through 
the remainder of the Inter-charter jieriod which c<ivered the years ir)84-i69J. 
The First Church remained the one church in the town for twenty years. 
Then in ]'i40 the .Second Clun-ch was instituted and at the Xorlh b.nd. Its 
first meetinghouse was erected that year in Xortli S(|uare. This was burned 
down in 1676. and relniilt the next year. The latter became the historic Old 
North Church, and was the meetinghouse, then a centurv old, which the 
British troops ])ulle(l down and used for hrevvood during the hard winter of 
the Siege of Boston. It was the ]>ulpit of the famous Mathers, Increase and 
Cotton, from 1664 to 17-3: and Samuel Mather, son of Cotton, 1732-1741. 
The Third Church was what we know as the Old .South, organized in 1669, 
and the first meetinghouse that year built, on the site occupied by the jiresent 
Old South Meetinghouse which succeeded it in 1730: and upou what was the 
"Governor's Green" — the green or garden lot adjoining (iovernor W'inthrop's 
second house in Boston, the "mansion" in which he lived the last six years 
of his life, and where he died, in i')4(). in his sixty-third year and the town's 
nineteenth. This mansion lemained, in after years serving as the parsonage 
of the Old South, an honored landmark through to the Revolution, when, 



34 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



like the Old Xortli Church, it was pulled down during the winter of th.e 
Siege and used for firewood by the British, while the present meetinghouse 
was utilized for the exercise of their cavah^y horses. 

The first Town House, of which the present Old State House is the 
hneal descendant, was set up in the Market Place in 1657-1659 (being two 
years in building), and succeeded the Market Place as the business exchange. 
It was practically a Town and Colony House, the seat of Town and Colony 
government, as the meetinghouse had been. It was provided for in the pro- 
digious will — one hundred and fifty-eight folio pages, "all writ in his own 
hand" — of Captain Roliert Keayne, a public-spirited citizen, founder of the 
militar\- organization which became the .\ncient and Honorable Artillerv Com- 




STATE STREET, BOSTON, DURING THE EARLY PART OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
THIS VIEW SHOWS THE EXACT SPOT ON WHICH 
THE BOSTON MASSACRE TOOK PLACE 



pany, and its first captain, an enterprising merchant — a tailor — a large lancl- 
holder, yet could not escape censure and i)enalty of Church and Court for 
taking exorbitant profits in his trade. Keayne died in his house beside the 
Market Place (his estate was on the South side between tiie present Devon- 
shire and Washington Streets) in March, 1655 or 1656. His will provided 
in detail for a Town House, an armory, a public library, and a conduit. The 
sum he bequeathed, however, was not suf^cient for the sort of Town House 
the town leaders felt should Ije erected. Accordingly an additional fund was 
raised through subscriptions of the townspeople, some agreeing to pay in 
merchandise, others in live stock, and provisions, some in labor. The contract 
called for a "very substantial and comely" building, of wood, set up(.m 



Tin-: P,OOK OF BOSTOX 




THE PRESENT STATE STREET LOOKING EAST FROM IN FRONT OF THE OLD STATE 

HOUSE, TAKEN FROM THE SAME LOCATION AS THE PICTURE O.N THE 

OPPOSITE PAGE, BUT SHOWING THE LOWER END 

OF THE MODERN THOROUGHFARE 



"twent\-i:iiie pillars full ten feut liigh hutween ]iedestal ami capital," and over- 
hanging tile pillars three feet all around. Xo actual i)icture of the (|uaint 
.structure, the nmst elahoralc then in the tuwn, is extant. The one which the 
histories contain and which we reproduce, was drawn from the full detailed 
specifications in the contract. Thomas Joy and I'.artholouiew I'.ernard were 
the huilders, and they built thoroughly and honestly. The place enclosed hy 
the pillars was used as a free market, and as an exchange where "the mer- 
chants of the towu mav confer": u])on the lloor aI)o\e the courts sat anil the 
town officers had their cpiarters. 'hhis "comely building" ser\ed Town and 
Colony for more than fifty _\-ears — thrcnigh the Colon}' and Inter-Charter 



36 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



periods, and \vell into the Province period. So here sat Governors Endicott, 
Leverett, and Bradstreet: Joseph Dudley as President of New England and 
his fifteen councillors. Here reigned Andros until his overthrow hy the 
revolution of 1689. And here began the reign of the royal governor. 
Here also, in 1686, was instituted the first Episcopal church in Bos- 
ton, when the authorities refused the use of any of the meetinghouses for 
this purpose. The House finally went down in the "great fire" of October, 
ijii, — the eighth "great fire" from which the town had suffered in four 
score years of its life — together with the neighboring meetinghouse, and one 
hundred dwellings, including most of those then on the j^resent Washington 
.Street South to School Street. A second Town and Court Hriuse, but of 






PAUL REVERe's house TODAY 

MAINTAINED AS ONE OF THE SHRINES OF AMERICAN 

INDEPENDENCE 

brick instead of wood, speedily arose upon its site, being completed in iji.v 
A third of a century later, in 1747, this second house was in turn burned, all 
but its walls. Then, in 1748- 1749, the present building of brick and oak was 
erected upon and in the old walls. Thus the present "Old State House" dates, 
or its outer walls date, from 171 3. 

Under the Province charter Boston became the capital of a vast state, 
comprising the territories of the Plymouth Colony, of Maine, and of Nova 
Scotia, annexed to Massachusetts. The old order of things aliruptly changed. 
Church and State were separated. All religious sects with the single excep- 
tion of "Papists" — Roman Catholics — were now enfranchised. The Church of 



THK HOOK OF BOSTON 



37 



luiglaiid l)ccanic a [)eniianentl_\' estahlisheil institutinn. With tlic advent 
of the r()\-al governor came a gay retiinie of subordinates enluening the dral) 
town. There were comings and goings of mihtary men, nf "liigh na\'al 
officers with their s(|uadrnn and riotous crews." £arl\- the town l)ecanie the 
centre of a miniature conrt. The crown officers introduced into it the forms 
and tlie ceremonies of a \ice royahy. The statehest mansion was ac(|uired 
and transformed into tiie I'roxince House, a grand official home for the royal 
governors. The new King's Chapel, the erection of wliich .Xnch'os had caused 
to be begun on laud tal<en from a corner of the first buryiug-g|-ound. ail Puri- 




A PICTURESQUE VIEW OF THE ATTACK ON BU.NKER HII.L 



tan landholders retusing to sell for such a purpose, was made the official 
church, and on its walls and i)illars were hung the king's and the governor's 
escutcheons. The Town House as the seat of government was emblazoneil 
with royal emblems. .Scarlet and gold and glitter brightened tiie crooked 
streets, gaily colored the social life. Many of the old regime mourned over 
the turn of things with ominous shakings of heads. The\- frowned upon the 
bringing in of Old England spoils (ju certain holidays. On Clu-istmas which 
the new element ostentatiously obserx'ed they as ostentatiousl}- kept open shop 
and went alxait their ordinar_\- \-ocations. Some of the nati\-e stock, howexer, 
citizens of standing in the communit\\ welcomed the change in government, 
"secretly or avowedly." Iwoni these, together with other citizens of position 
and inriuence, socially and commercially, evolved the Rovalists, or "Tories," 
of the pre-Revolutionary period. From others (juite as high in the little .social 
and commercial world, things smaller in numbers, together with the i>re- 
dominating nu'ddle class, develo])e(l the \\'hig, or "Libertv men." 

In 1704 the lirst .\merican ne\\s])a])er to be permanentlv established in 
the colonies, was begun in Tlic Boston Xci^-s-Lcttcr. An earlier attempt at 
journalism had been made in T>oston in 1690, fourteen vears before the estab- 
lishment of the .Vi-rc.s-- /,(•//(•;•. with the venture of Pithlick Occitrvcuccs. both 
I'oirci;^ii 011:1 Piuiirsticlc. a i|uite creditable performance: but the times were 



38 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




CAPTAIN- JAMES DALTOx's HOUSE, BUILT 175S. SITE NOW OCCUPIED BY THE POST OFFICE 




LATER VIEW OF CONGRESS AND MILK STREETS, NOW 
OCCUPIED BY THE POST OFFICE 



not \'et ripe for a free or an unliridled press, and Piiblick Occurrences was 
promptly courted with the initial number liv order of the Go\'ernor and Coun- 
cil. In 1719 a second paper was launched — The Boston Gazette. These two 
remained the only newspapers in the colonies: but only for a day; for under 
date of the dav following that of the Gazette's first issue The American 
JJ'eeklv Mercury started up in Philadelphia, Botli the Xeies-Lctter and the 







W w 



^ ^ 



40 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



Gacctfc ran through the Province period, the former continuing to 1776, the 
latter to 1780. The lYews-Lcttcr became the Tory paper and went down in 
the Siege of Boston. 

In 1742 Faneuil Hall was added to the few public buildings, presented 
to the town b}- the generous Peter Faneuil, to become the place of famous 
town meetings, and the "Cradle of Liberty."' It had the distinction of 
being designed by a painter-architect of reputation — the Scotch John 
vSimbert, among the earliest to introduce art to the town with his portraits 




TREMONT STREET IN ITS EARLY DAYS, SHOWING THE FAMOUS OLD TREMONT 
TEMPLE AND THE KINg's CHAPEL 



of Boston worthies, forerunner of John Swyleton Copley, Boston's native 
"court painter." The original Hall was Inirned all liut its walls in 
a destructive fire of January. 176J, and a second built upon its walls 
in 1762-1763. The present Hall is the building of 1763 doul>leil in 
width and a story higher, the enlargement hax'ing been made in 1805 under 
the supervision of Boston's most famous native architect, Charles Bulfinch. 
Above the public hall have been the rjuarters of the Ancient and Honorable 
Artillery Comixmy for many years. The present King-'s Chapel, covering the 
site of the first one, which was enlarged and embellished in 17 10, was building 
from 1749 to 1754. Its transformation fn)m the first Episcopal church to the 
first Unitarian in America came in 1787. The present Christ Church, at the 
North End, dating from 1723, now the oldest church edifice standing in 
Boston, was the second Episcopal church to be organized. Trinity Church, 
dating from 1728, its first church building, however, not set up till 1735 — 
on Summer Street, at the corner of Hawley Street — was the third Episcopal 
church in Boston. The first Catholic church edifice was not erected till the 
opening of the nineteenth century, although Alass was first celeljrated in Bos- 
ton in 1788, and the first Catholic church was organized in 1790. 

One of the earliest pictures of Boston as a whole — "A South East View 
of y' Great Town of Boston in New England in .\merica,"' tlrawn in 1723 
by William Burgis, and known as the Burgis X'iew. — shows the town from 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 41 

end to end with tlie water frunt; and tlie descriptive text enumerated al)Out 
thirty-two hundred houses, inchiding several notable mansions, one-third of 
which were built of brick, eleven churches, fifteen shipyards, one hundred and 
four streets, lanes, and alk'\s the most of them ])aved with pebbles, and the 
number of inhabitants sixteen thousanil. Commerce and industries were then 
prospering-, regardless of the ham])ering navigation acts and the Parliament- 
ary laws which would suppress colonial manufactures. The harbor was busy 
with shipping. Boston trade was "reaching into every sea." 

In the pre-Revolutionary period the "rebellious town," as Boston above 
all others in the colonies had come to be called in England, contained about 
sixteen thousand inhabitants. The sex'eral steps in the fourteen }'ears of this 
period that led up to the Re\-olution — the move against \\'rits of Assistance 
with Otis's electrifying argument before the high court of the Province, the 
revolt against the Stamp Act and the Townshend Revenue Acts, the "Boston 
^lassacre," the "Boston Tea Party," and finally those acts in connection with 
the closing of the port, when "the continent as 'one great commonwealth* 
made the cause of Boston its own." — may all l)e easilv traced todav within 
a narrow compass of the old town, for, fortunately, their landmarks have not 
been altogether obliterated in the town's repeated makings over. Thev cen- 
tered for the most part in and round about the present handsomely preserved 
Old State House, Faneuil Hall, and the Old South Meetinghouse. 

After the Revolution numerous enterprises in the de\-elopment of the 
town were inaugurated. In 1784. we are told b\- the local historian, Shurt- 
left', the North End contained about six hundred and eighty dwelling-houses 
and tenements, and six meetinghouses: "Xew Boston," or wdiat we now call 
the "Old West End." about one hundred and se\enty dwelling-houses and 
tenements; and the South Eiul, then extending from the "Mill Bridge," on 
Hano\'er Street, near the corner of Union Street, over the "old canal," to the 
fortifications on the Xeck near l)o\-er Street, al)out twelve hundred and fift_\' 
dwelling-houses, ten meetinghouses, all the public buildings, and the prin- 
cipal shops and warehouses. Some of the mansion-houses in this jiart, says 
Shurtleff, writing in the latter eighteen-sixties, would now be called mag- 
nificent. Xo streets had then been constructed \\"est of Pleasant Street ami 
the Common. In 1786 the first briilge from Boston was completed — the 
Charles River Bridge to Charlestiiwn. considered at the time one of the grand- 
est enterprises ever undertaken in the country. Seven years later, in 1793. 
the West Boston Bridge to Cambridge, from the foot of Cafiibridge Street, 
was added. In 1795 the erection of the State Plouse — the "Bulfinch Front" 
— placed in the "governor's ])asture," a part of the Hancock estate, atljoining 
the mansion-house grounds on Beacon Street, was begun. Then followed 
the upbuilding of Beacon Hill ^^'estward, to that time in large part pasture 
lands over which the cows roamed. In 1803 Charles Street at the foot of the 
Common and Beacon Hill was laitl out. In 1804 Dorchester X'eck and Point, 
the territory fornnng the greater part of South Boston, was annexed to 
Boston. In 181 1 the levelling of the main peak, or summit, of Beacon Hill, 
was begun. Its cutting oft" occupied a dozen years, and was locally called 
"The Great Digging.'' The earth was mostly used for filling the Xorth 
Cove, or ^lill Pond. 

Boston continued under the town system, governed bv a board of selcct- 
meti, until 18.2J, although ])ropositions to change to the forms of an inde- 
pendent city had been repeatedly made, the first one in 1708, but invariably 





7. 

O 
H 














— o 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



43 




PRESENT VIEW OF WASHINGTON STREET LOOKING NORTH FROM IN FRONT 
OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE 



voted (liiwn ill t(j\vn meeting. And the vute in favor of the change, in Janu- 
ary, 1822, was carried only by a small majority. The charter subset|uentl_\- 
obtained was accepted li)- the legal voters on the fonrth of March following. 
by a maj(irity of less than a thousand in a total vote of forty-six hundred and 
sevent_\'-eight. The debt transferred from the town to the city was only a 
hundred thousand dollars, which sjieaks well for those frugal days. The 
inhabitants then numbered fifty thim^and, and the valuation of real and per- 
sonal property was about forty- foiu^ millinns. The first city go\-ernment was 
organized on the first of May, 1822, in Fancuil Ha!!. The first City Hall was 
the present Old State House. The first maynr was John I'hilli])s, a citizen 
of high stambng, under the town go\ernment U)V man_\' years town ad\'i>cate 



44 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

and public prosecutor. \\'entlell Phillips was his distinguished son. The 
second ma3'or was Josiah Ouincy, elected by the whole number of votes cast. 
His administration co\ered si.x temis, 1823- 1828. During this period great 
improvements were effected by Mr. Ouincy. These included the building of 
the Ouincy ]\Iarket-house ; the opening of six new streets in its neighborhood 
and the enlargement of a seventh ; and the acquisition of docks, and wharf 
rights to the extent of one hundred and forty-two thousand square feet. "All 
this," says Mr. Ouincy in his "IMunicipal History of Boston'' was "accom- 
plished in the centre of a populous city not only without any tax, debt, or bur- 
den upon its pecuniary resources, but with large permanent additions to its real 
and productive property." In 1830, during the mayoralty of Harrison Gray 
Otis, the de\-elopment of the newer South End, South of Dover Street to the 
Roxburv line, with the filling of the flats on either side of the Neck, was 
begun: altliough this development was not systematically pursued until some 
twentv years later. In 1833 the uplniilding of "Noddle's Island," before that 
time a place of large farms, and a favorite with fishing parties, was ener- 
getically started, and Noddle's Island became East Boston. In 1857 the 
great "Back Bay Improvement" — the filling of the Back Bay and the resultant 
upbuilding of the impressive Back Bay quarter of the city — was begun. At 
the same time the "marsh at the bottom of the Common," over which there 
had been controversy for some years, and which had long been occupied by 
ropewalks, was formally set apart for the Public Garden. Soon after system- 
atic plans for the Garden's develiipment were made. 

Meanwhile Boston commercially had become a great centre of foreign 
trade. By 1837, with the initial railroads — the Boston and Lowell, the 
Providence, and the Worcester and ^^'estern. underway, Boston possessed, 
as Charles Francis Adams has described, the best developed germ of a rail- 
road svstem in all America. In 1840 the first steam packets of the Cunard 
Company made their appearance in Boston Harbor — the "Unicorn" in June, 
the "Britannia" in Tul_\-, and the "Arcadia" in August — and the first regular 
Atlantic steamship service had begun. For several years thereafter Boston 
was possessed of a combination of railway and steamship facilities such as 
(again quoting Cliarles Francis Adams' statements) no other city on the sea- 
board could boast of. Then, w ith the establishment by leading Boston houses 
of selling agencies in New York, and the opening of the California trade, the 
commercial leadership passed to New York. The financial centre of the great 
New England manufacturing interests, howe\-er, still remained in Boston. 

\Miile its physical appearance had changed, and its enterprise was broad 
and varied, the city yet remained, as Mr. Adams pronounced, a provincial 
town in aspect and manner till the 'sixties. 




THE BOSTON OF FIFTY YEARS AGO 

TiiE Smai.i< but Conspicuous City of the ^Iiddi.e Eighteen Sixties^ 

Its Characteristics, Institutions, Activities, and Men — Some 

Representative Merchants, Statesmen, Politicians, 

Editors, Lawyers, ^Ministers of 1865 




HE Boston oi 'sixty-fi\-e was a snug town still confined to the 
original peninsula with only two outlying districts — South 
Boston's point and East Boston's island. The business parts 
were compact and the residence quarters close to them, or 
within easy walks or horse-car or omnibus rides. The 
]:)resent Ro.xbnry, West Ro.xbury, Dorchester, Charlestown, 
and Brighton Districts were yet independent municipalities or townships. 
The city then ended on the South at the Roxbury line on Boston Xeck as at 
the town's beginning; on the Xorth. at Charles River and the harbor turn; 
on the East, at the harbor front ; and on the West, slightly below Arlington 
Street at the foot of the Public Garden. The Back Bay was yet in consider- 
able part open water and unsightly Hats. The filling by dump cars, opening 
at the sides, with gravel Ijrought from distant hills, neighboring heights at 
first utilized being exhausted, was progressing with a fair degree of rapidity, 
but large spaces yet remained t(i be covered. Beacon Street, on the North 
side made into the "Alilldam," the long stone causeway across the head of 
the Ijay which appears in old jiictures of the West side of the middle nine- 
teenth century Boston; Boylston Street, on the Soutli side practicallv ended 
with a line of genteel brick houses opposite the Public Garden terminating at 
about the opening of the present extension of Arlington Street South. The 
Miildam had been built in i8i8-i<S2i for the two-fold puri)ose of providing 
a water power by means of a tide mill, and a toll roadwav — "\\'estern 
Avenue" — to the mainland : while it further served to reclaim the Back Bay 
lands from the sea. It was the conception of Uriah Cotting, one of the most 
sagacious and public-spirited Bostonians of his day, to whom Boston was 
indebted for numerous very great im]5rovenients which largelv increased its 
area and its taxable property, among them the la}-ing out and substantial up- 
building of Broad and India and cross streets, with the establishment of 
modern wharves on the harbor front, and as extensive undertakings in other 
parts (jf tlie town, — the "greatest benefactor of Boston," as Nathaniel Inger- 
soll Bowditch, the "Gleaner,'' among Boston's accurate historians, terms him, 
who died in 18 19 insolvent through reverses during the embargo and the 
War of 1812: and who, in Gleaner's estimation, was as deserving of lasting 
commemoration as Peter Faneuil and Josiah Ouincy: but who is rememliered 



4r. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



only in the name of a small street in the nuw hedraggled part of the old West 
End, between Leverett and Lowell Streets, passing through land which lie 
once owned. Radiating from the iMilldam were similar dams — the "Cross- 
clam" to Roxbury, and the "Punch Bowl Road" to Brookline — which in the 
Back Bay de\elopment were utilized in Parker Street and Brookline Avenue 
respectiveh'. In 1865 the Milldani was a free roadway, the tolls having been 
taken ofi two years before, and it had become colloquially the "Brighton 
Road," a famous trotting and racing course as well as a soberly travelled 
thoroughfare. The sih-er maples, bent landward ijy the force of the wintry 
\\'inds (I believe there is one yet left) which adorned one side of the roadway, 
added tn its charms. It was the scene of a winter carnival when snow was 




LOOKING SOUTHEAST IN 1865 FROM THE CUPOLA OF THE STATE HOUSE SHOWING THE 
HARBOR, CITY POINT AND FORT INDEPENDENCE 



on the ground. Then sleighs of all styles and condition lined either side, 
going out or coming in, while up and down the middle raced spanking teams 
in glorious fashion. On Beacon Street the houses then extended below 
Arlington Street a little beyond the line of white granite houses of quiet and 
neat faqades West of Charles Street and opposite the Public Garden which 
before had marked the finish of Beacon Street. 

The Pul)lic Garden was yet without fountain, statue, or monument, and 
the serpentine pond unbridged. The first unornamental erection, the pontler- 
ous bridge which the local wits dubbed the "Bridge of Size," was not to 
appear for two years yet: and the first statue, — the equestrian \Vashington, 
Thomas Ball's best work, — for five years, although the movement for the 
latter was begun before the war: b}- a great fair in 1859. There were but 
two churches on the "Xew Lands," as the Back Bay quarter was at first 
termed, in 'sixty-fi\-e — the Arlington Street Church, Arthur Gilman's fine 



THI-: HOOK OF BOSTON' 



47 



piece of architecture after tlie Wren niuilel : and tlie l{ninianuel, on Xewhury 
Street close to Arlington Street. The Xatnral History Society's building, 
the pioneer of the Back liay institutional establishments, had been completed 
only the }ear liefore. The Rogers Building of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, founded in i(S6i, was underway to be finished the next year — 
1866. These two statelx" structures were to remain thereafter for (|uite a 
while the sole lonely monuments of the \\'estern building up of the Xew 
Lands. In front antl in the rear of them was marked on the Back Bav plans 
a public square — "Berkeley Square"; but this scheme was ultimately aban- 
doned, and that of Copley Square, lower down, suljstituted lor it in the early 
'eighties. 

The fashinnable residential part of the 'sixties was the new South End. 
with its comfortable broad-breasted houses, its spacious thoroughfares. 




l)leasant cross streets, its cheerful little parks; now, alas! gi\-en o\-er to a 
b()arding and "rooming" populace, and the social settler: the most cosmopoli- 
tan part of the cit_\'. }el with traces of its past glory. Then to li\'e on Chester 
S((uare, on Union Park, or on \\'orcester Street, West Xewton Street, Brook- 
line Street, or round about Blackstone and Franklin Squares, was a mark 
of social position as definite as residence today an}'wliere within the Back Bay 
limits. Here were some of the finer churches and the notable institutions. 
But much of the old Bcjston "(piality" yet lingered in the heart of the town. 
On Colonnade Row along Tremont vStreet, between West and Eiovlston Streets, 
opi)osite the Common (the latest note in Bidfinch's domestic architecture): 
on Summer Street between Washington Street and "Church Green," at the 
junction with Bedford Street, wliere still stood facing the Green the Xew 
South Church, this ])eautiful meetinghouse, a I'ldfinch production, succeeding 
the plainer structure of the Pro\ince period; on Chauncy, Bedford, and Kings- 
ton Streets : — refined dwellings of older Boston types, remained, homes 
largely of old families to which their occu])ants were clinging fondly as busi- 
ness was ])ressing them round about; while Beacon Street and Beacon Hill 
still comprised the bluest quarter, the genuine West End. 



48 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



The otlier historic hills. Fort Hill at the original South end of the 
harbor front, marked now by Independence Square, and Copp"s Hill at the 
harbor's North end, were both still standing, though shorn and clipped; and 
between them was the irregular water line, for Atlantic Avenue was yet to 
be built. Fort Hill was shabbily reminiscent of its glory when it was a 
favored residential part. Around the square that crowned it, squalid rem- 
nants yet remained of once genteel houses, and the trees were still handsome, 
while its harbor outlook was unimpaired. It was thus to stand four years 
longer, for its removal was not begun til! 1869. Copp's Hill was preserved 
as now by its ancient burxing-grounds. In its neighborhood were yet a few 
respectable old Boston hoanes. But the fair North End of Colony and 
Province days, the first of all seats of Boston gentility, was now, and long 
had been, the tough end of the city. Its transformation into the foreign 




A VIEW OF THE CIM HAIL IN IHh EARLY SIXTIES 



(juarter was underway. It was the bailiwick of the rougher populace. Sailors' 
houses and resorts abounded here. Along North Street, broad open to the 
sidewalk, were rows upon rows of sailors' dance halls and saloons, and from 
their hospitably wide open doors issued forth of nights the alluring screech 
of the fiddle and the heavy rhythmic thuds of solid dancing feet. Withal it 
was the most picturesque part of the town, thick with historic landmarks, 
and the show places to visitors. 

The principal hotels were in the heart of tlie town, and were evening 
exchanges in which merchants, politicians, and men-about-town were wont 
to drop and discuss the news and affairs of the day. There was the Tremont 
House, where is now the Tremont Building, occupying the space between the 
Granary Eurying-ground and Beacon Street, the stateliest in appearance, with 
its dignified pillared entrance porch, and the most distinguished, as well as 
the oldest, dating back to 1828. There were Parker's and Young's, the most 



THE BOOK OI'^ BOSTON 



49 



popular and faxiiriic dinins;- ])lacc-s iimcli aft'ectcd l)y boii-iTcWils, tlien nuicli 
smaller than now, with Harve\- 1). Parker and Georges Young, hoth Ijorn 
landlords of the okl school, in acti\e conduct, and at the front, concerned in 
the welfare and comfort of their patrons. There were the American House, 
occupying the sites of three old time taverns, and boasting the first passenger 
elevator to be introduced into an hotel: the Revere House, dating from 1847, 
embellishing Bowdoin Square (then an attractive enclosure adorned with 
trees and framed in reputable old Boston architecture, in marked contrast to 
its present sadly shabby air), the most historic, as the place where for a long 
period the city's distinguished guests were entertained; the Ouincy House, 
dating from 1819. the older part on the site of the first Quaker meetinghouse, 
distinguished in its patronage by Xew Hampshire and jMaine folk: the Adams 
House, predecessor of the ]iresent Adams, occupying the site of the Lamb 




STATE STREET AND THE OLD MERCHANTS EXCHANGE, ENTIRE SITE NllW CALHII) HV 1111 
SPLENDID NEW EXCHANGE BUILDING 



Tavern of Province and stage-coach days, in the "sixties a favorite hostelry 
with country members of the Legislature: the Evans Plouse, the newest, on 
Tremont Street opposite the Common, breaking into old Colonnade Row ; the 
United States, close by the Western railroad stations, succeeding an earlier 
tavern built before railroad days, and so adopting for its seal that tavern's- 
date, 1826: the ^Merrimack and the New England, comfortable houses near 
the Eastern stations. In the older parts of the city yet lingered a few inns 
left over from stage-coach days, as the Eastern Exchange on Causeway 
Street, the Elm House, and Wilde's, the latter with pebble-paved court-yard. 
There were a few old London-like small publics, as the Bite Tavern in Faneuil 
Hall Square : the Blue Bonnet in Scwall Place, back of the Old South Meet- 
inghouse, the Stachpole on Milk Street. And there were the jirime half 
tavern and half-restaurants, favorites of good livers, as "Billy" I'ark's house, 
in Central Place, covered now l)y the great Jordan, IMarsh store, and "Brig- 
ham's," in Scollay Square, the establishment of Peter B. Brigham, who made 
a fortune in its conduct, together with wise investments in the new railroad 




TllL OLU SLAR.S L3IAIL, A IIXE EXAMPLE OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF FIFTY YEARS 
AND MORE AGO. THESE PREMISES ARE NOW OCCUPIED BY THE SOMERSET CLUB, 
A LEADING WOMEx's ORGANIZATION OF THE CITY 





OLD NATIONAL THEATRE WHICH STOOD ON PORTLAND 
AND TRAVERSE STREETS AND WAS THE HOME OF 
HIGH-CLASS PRODUCTIONS OF THE DAY. ERECTED 
IN 18J2, DESTROYED BY FIRE IN 1853 



OLD SOUTH CHURCH, SHOWING THE ADDITIONS MADE FOR 
POST OFFICE PURPOSES, AFTER THE GREAT FIRE OF 
NOVEMBER 9-10, 1872 



Till-: HOOK OF BOS'I'OX 



51 



enterprises, am! wlidse iiiciiuiiiicm is the lienehcent inndcrn I 'eter lient Urig- 
ham iiospilal, endowed with liis fortune. 

The railroad stations of the se\eral lines radiating from Boston, each 
system then ha\ing a station of its own. were all on the city's water edges — 
The Worcester. ( )]d Colony, and rnnidence at the South, tlie Maine, East- 
ern, and Fitclilnirg at the North. The outer suburbs were comparatix'ely 
remote. There were half a dozen separate horse-railrcad systems, with a 




SCHOOL STRKET AND L ITV MALL AVKNUE IN 1865 AT THE COMPLETION OF Till. NEW CITY HALL 
A CORNER OF WHICH SHOWS ON THE LEFT 



six-cent fare onh- to the immediate suburbs, and a ten-cent fare to those 
others to which the rails then e.xtended, as Dorchester, Somer\-ille, Maiden, 
Medford. And trips were frnm fifteen minutes to an liour apart, according to 
the distance. The princip.d lines were the Metropolitan between Roxbury 
and Boston, its terminus on Tremont Street beside the (jranar_\- lUirying- 
ground; the Broadway, from Sonlh lioston, terminating in Scollay Sfpiare — 
or at Scollay Building, wliere the Subway station now is; the Aliddlesex, 
from Charlestown and adjoining lines, also bringing up at Scollay Building; 
the Cambridge, ending in liowdoin Square. There was also a line to Lvnn. 
with office in Cornhill : and one to (_)uinc_\-, from the corner of State and Broad 
Streets, making trips once an hour. Brookline was reached by an omnilius 
line, running from the Post Office, then on State Street, week days, and on 
Sundays from the State House — three trips on Sundays: — fare fifteen cents. 
Omnibuses dominated Washington Street between Concord Street near the 
Roxbury line and Court Street, State Street and Dock Square where Wash- 
ington Street then ended. One line ran to the foot of State Street; another 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



to Chelsea Ferrv, others to Charlestown. The last trips were nine o'clock in 
the evening. None was run on Sundays. 

There were seven places of amusement: live theatres — the Boston 
jMuseum, the Boston Theatre, the Howard Athenanim. the Tremont (not the 
present Tremont, but a little affair liack of the Studio Building), and 
the National ; a minstrel hall, — ]\Iorris Brothers, I'ell & Trowbridge's, in the 
remnant of the historic old Province House, back of Washington Street 
nearly opposite jNlilk Street; and an Aquarial Garden on Summer and 
Chauncy Streets. There were but three club-houses: the Temple, on West 
Street, opposite the opening of Mason Street, with easy access to the Boston 
Theatre; the Somerset, on Somerset Street by the corner of Beacon Street, 
occupving rooms in a fine old-time granite-faced mansion-house that had 
fallen to trade uses, and was ultimately to make way for the extension of the 
Houghton-Dutton Iniilding; and the Union, on Park Street opposite the 
Common, utilizing another and later-day mansion, the last Boston residence 
of the eminent merchant, Abbott Lawrence. The Temple was the oldest of 
the three, dating from 1829, and was fashioned after the high-bred London 
clubs; the Somerset had been established from 1852, and assumed to be the 
bluest blooded; the Union was new, and of the largest import, it having been 
organized in 1863, primarily, like the L'nion League of New York, as a 
patriotic social institution of substantial citizens in support of the L'nion cause 
in the Civil War. 

Of the literary institutions and libraries contributing to the town's 
reputation for culture, the Boston Athenaeum, more than half a century old 
(founded in 1807), housed in its chaste building on Beacon Street erected in 
1849 (the faqade of which the good sense of the proprietors has retained 
to this day, while reconstructing and fire-proofing the interior), was the chief. 
It was in these 'sixties an art museum as well as a library, forerunner of the 
present Museum of Fine Arts, to which, upon the latter's establishment in 
1870, its collection of paintings was transferred. In the Athenaeum was also 
then quartered the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 
1780, with one exception — the Philadelphia association — the oldest scientific 
society in America, today occupying its own building, of genteel architecture, 
on Newbury Street, Back Bay. Neighboring the Athen;eum, on Tremont 
Street, adjoining King's Chapel Burying-ground, were then the rooms and 
library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, founded in 1791, the oldest 
historical society in the country, and the richest in collections, now in a 
sumptuous house of its own in the Back Bay quarter on Boylston Street close 
by the Fens. On Summer Street were the quarters of the Mercantile Library 
Association, established in 1820 by a coterie of bookish Boston young men, 
the first organization of its kind in the country, with its substantial library of 
standard and current literature, primarily for the use and improvement of the 
younger members of the mercantile community ; and with its various activities, 
notable among these the "Mercantile Library Course" of lectures, through 
which many of the most prominent lecturers of the country in the heyday 
of the lyceum were introduced to the public. Ultimately, with the develop- 
ment of the free Public Library, its race was run, and its collections of books, 
especially rich in Americana, and Boston prints, passed to that institution. 
The Public Library, instituted in 1852, and first opened in 1854, was occupy- 
ing its own house, erected liy the city in 1858, on Boylston Street opposite the 
Common, where is now the Colonial Theatre. This library-building was a 





1-RANKIJN STKl.hl' 1)1- 1N5.S, MIOWIXG THE ROMAN 
CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY CROSS AND 
THE SPIRE OF THE OLD FEDERAL STREET CHLRCH 



NORTH SIDE OF FRANKLIN -ilKLLl IN 1855. A STREET 
OF MANY BEAUTIFUL RESIDENCES AND THE LOCA- 
TION OF SOME OF boston's MOST HISTORIC HOMES 





FRANKLIN STREET OF 1SS5, SHOWING THE SITE (It THE 
BOSTON LIBRARY OF THOSE DAYS. THE ARCHWAY 
IS WELL REMEMBERED BY BOSTONIANS OF TODAY 



C.HLKi.11 IjREEN OF 1855. KlijHI-lI AND VILW LOOKINl. 
TOWARD WTNTHKOP PLACE. THIS DISTRICT HAS 
BEEN WHOLLY TAKEN OVER BY BUSINESS HOUSES 



54 THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 

creditable structure, admirably designed and arranged, and dignified by its 
noble central Bates Hall, named in honor of the Boston-born London banker, 
Joshua Bates, of Baring Brothers, the library's earliest large benefactor; and 
it possessed the library flavor more distinctively than the present niiinumental 
establishment on Copley Square. Other valuable and useful libraries of 
these middle 'sixties ^vere those of the New England Historic Genealogical 
vSociety then on Somerset Street, now on Ashburton Place; of the Massa- 
chusetts Horticultural Societ_y, in its then new Horticultural Hall — its second 
— on Tremont Street between Montgomery Place (now Bosworth Street) 
and Bromfield Street, where is now the Paddock Building, a structure of 
highly ornamented fac^ade, adorned with granite statues of Ceres, Flora, and 
Pomona, modelled by the favorite Boston sculptor of that time, ^lartin Mil- 
more; the Social Law Library, dating from 1804, in the old Court House 
which the present City Hall Annex replaces ; the Boston Medical Library on 
Temple Place, soon to expand into larger quarters on Boylston Place, and 
in after years, richly endowed, to occupy its own fine house on the Fenway; 
the Handel and Haydn Society's musical library, in the old ^lusic Hall build- 
ing off Winter Street; and not the least of all the wisely selected collection 
of the venerable Boston Library Association, dating from 1794, occupying 
rooms on Essex Street, but early to become permanenthr settled in a house 
of its own on Boylston Place. The culti\ation of pure music which had of 
necessity waned through the Civil War period, was reviving, and Boston 
was returning to the advanced position with respect to musical taste and 
development it had occu])ied for half a centurj^ before. Li 'sixty-three the 
"Great Organ," then the largest organ in the country and one of the largest 
in the world, had been set up in the old Music Hall, and its accession cele- 
brated with a great festival by the Handel and Haydn Society. Li 'sixty-five, 
with the close of the war, the series of Harvard Symphony Concerts, a regu- 
lar feature of the season, comprising eight or ten concerts, for which the 
programmes were intentionally kept at the highest standard without regard 
to fashion or popular demand, with the view primarily of cultivating the 
public taste for classical orchestral work, were instituted by the Harvard 
Musical Association, then the most influential musical organization in the 
city, formed in the late 'thirties to "promote the progress and knowledge of 
the best music," and devoted to all worthy schemes for the advancement of 
the higher musical education and the elevation of the popular taste. Its 
Harvard Symphony concerts continued the season's choice feature through 
a succession of years, and from them evolved the permanent Boston institu- 
tion, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Association remains in vigorous 
existence, but now in honorable retirement, occupying a fine old Boston 
house of its own, on Chestnut Street, Beacon Hill, and giving occasional 
private concerts to its favored friends. 

The merchants in these middle 'sixties, or some of then:, were yet wont 
to gather on 'change between noon and two o'clock as in the old days. The 
principal meeting place was still State Street, but no longer in the basement 
of the Old State House, or in the open street in front, as of old. There was 
now, and had been for nearly a quarter of a century, a special building for 
their accommodation. This Boston Exchange had been erected by a group of 
citizens in the earh' 'forties, when, as Colonel Thomas Handasyde Perkins, 
the then venerable gentleman yet among the foremost of Boston merchants, 
in his address at the laying of the corner stone in August, 1841, explained, 



Till-: BOOK Ol'^ I'.OSTOX 



,i,"> 




Ti)K OLD GLEASON PUBLISHING HOUSE WHICH STOOD 
ON TREMONT STREET. SITE NOW OCCUPIED BY 
THE PADDOCK BUILDING 



its estaljlishmuiit was callesl t(jr 

by the great increase of strangers 

visiting the cit\' as well as by the 

great amount <if liusiness then 

being transacted. That was the 

period when Boston was at the 

height of i-ts prosperity in furuign 

and domestic commerce, leading 

all its rivals in the extent of its 

iratle ; when great fortunes were 

making in the China and East 

India traile. when the harbor was 

alive with shi]iping from the 

great ports of the wurld, and the 

])rincipal wharves, then lined 

w ith substantial warehouses, were 

crowded with vessels ilischarging 

and taking cargi les. The V.x- 

change was a dignified building 

(if granite and pillared front, and 

stood where is now the h'.xchange 

Ijiiikling, No. 53, for which, with 

neighboring old-time structures, 

it made wa\' in the latter 'eighties. 

In the middle 'sixties it was the seat of the I'oston I'.oard of Trade, an organ- 
ization chartered a decade before (in 1S54) "for the purpose of promoting 

trade and commerce in the city of I'.ostoii and its vicinity," and at this period 

comprising in its memliership rep- 
resentatives of every liranch of 
business in the city, and exerting 
a wholesome influence in the af- 
fairs and enterprises of the com- 
nuuiity. The Post Ot¥ice also 
occupied a part of the building in 
1S65, when John G. Palfrey, the 
historian and politician, was the 
postmaster. The only other ex- 
change at this time was the Corn 
ICxchange, established in 1839, 
reorganized in 1855 "for the pur- 
jiose of regulating and promoting 
dealings in breadstufTs," which 
the flour and grain merchants 
especially patronized. 

Among the merchants of the 
r.oston of fifty years ago of wide 

re])ute from the extent of their o])erations and lireadth of interests, I recall 

such sterling liostou names of 'sixty-hve as: John Al. k'orbes, Henry L. Pierce, 

Otis Norcross, Alpheus Hardy, Joseph S. Ropes, George P. P'pton, Gardner 

Brewer, Tames ^I. Beebe, William iMidicoU, Martin lirimmer, Isaac Rich, 

M. Denman Ross, Thomas A. Goddanl. l'".livha Atkins, James L. Little, 




THE OLD BEACON HILL KLSEKXOIK. VIEW FROM A 
WINDOW OF THE CAPITOL BUILDING 



56 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Edward S. Toliey, Jonathan A. Lane, Thomas Nickerson, Alexander H. Rice, 
A\-er3- Phimer; the shipping houses of Ghdden & WiUiams, ^\'iUiam F. Weld 
& Company, Thomas B. \\'ales & Company, Thayer & Lincohi, Howes & 
Crowell; ship building concerns: Aquila Adams and Loring Harrison, iron 
steamship builders at South Boston, E. & H. Briggs, South Boston, D. D. 
Kelley and Donald .\lcKa}-. East Boston, still building fine merchant ships; 
representati\-es of the New England manufacturing interests : • Enoch R. 
Mudge, George C. Richardson, Samuel H. Walley, J. Wiley Edmunds, 
Erastus B. Bigelow, in\entor of the carpet loom; the retail dry goods houses 
(the modern department store was yet to develop) : C. F. Hovey & Company 
and Chandler & Company on Summer Street, Hogg, Brown & Taylor, and 
Shepard, Norwell & Brown, on ^^'inter Street, Jordan, }ilarsh & Company 
and R. H. ^^'hite & Company, the latter the youngest. Among the leading 
bankers there were Nathaniel Thayer, largely concerned in the upbuilding 
of western railroads, George Baty Blake, head of Blake Brothers & Con;- 
pany. Colonel Henry Lee and George Higginson constituting the house of 
Lee, Higginson & Compan}-, which [Major Henry L. Higginson, returned 
from the Avar, was soon to join, Henry P. Kidder and Francis Peabod}-, 
comprising the firm of Kidder, Peabody & Company w hicli was to succeed 
Nathaniel Thayer upon the latter's early retirement. Among book pub- 
lishers and booksellers : Ticknor & Fields, in the famous ''Old Corner Book- 
store" culti\'ated by the "Boston literati" of the day, where might be met 
of an afternoon Holmes, Lowell, Longfellow, \\'hipple, Einerson when in 
town, and Whittier, Charles Eliot Norton and other literary Harvard pro- 
fessors; E. P. Dutton & Company (Charles A. Clapp, my life-long friend ), on 
the School-Street side of the Old Corner, soon to move to- New York ; Little, 
Brown & Company, then the chief law-book publishers: Crocker & Brewster; 
Crosby & Nichols; Lee & Shepard, the latter newly formed, Roberts Brothers, 
also newly formed, comprising Thomas Niles, a literary publisher, and 
Roberts, Niles's brother-in-law; A. \Mlliams, A. K. Loring, with his popular 
circulating library, Gould & Lincoln, and on Cornhill the group of book 
shops, favorite browsing places : T. O. H. P. Burnham's, D. C. Colesworthy's, 
Bartlett & Haliday's. Among leading lawyers or counsellors : Sidney Bart- 
lett, Peleg \\'. Chandler, Theophilus P. Chandler, George O. Shattuck, 
Causten Browne, Benjamin R. Curtis, E. Hasket Derby, A. Dexter, Wal- 
bridge A. Field, Asa French, Horace Gray, Jr., Joshua D. Ball, William H. 
[Nlunroe, John E. Hudson, John P. Healy (city solicitor), George S. Hillard, 
E. Rockwood Hoar, George S. Boutwell, Edward F. Hodges, Benjamin F. 
Hallett, Henry C. Hutchins and Alexander S. ^^'heeler, James B. Thayer, 
Seth J. Thomas, John Noble, Richard Olney, George P. Sanger, Charles T. 
Russell, ^^'illiam G. Russell, Leverett Saltonstall. Leading ministers, all of 
them Boston personages, the Unitarians predominating: Rufus Ellis, 
Chandler Robbins, James Freeman Clarke, Cyrus A. Bartol, Samuel K. 
Lothrop, Ezra S. Gannett, George L. Chane}-, Henry ^^'. Foote, Edward 
E\'erett Hale, George H. Hepworth (afterward Ijecoming Orthodox Con- 
gregational), David A. Wasson, ^^'illiam R. Alger, Samuel H. Winkley; 
Universalist : Alonzo A. ]\Iiner, Thomas B. Thayer, Samuel Ellis, L C. 
Knowlton; Congregational Trinitarian: George W. Blagden and Jacob M. 
Planning, ministers of the Old South, the society still occupying the Old 
South Meetinghouse. Andrew L. Stone, Park Street Church, Nehemiah 
Adams, Union Church. Henrv 'SI. Dexter, Berkelev Street Church (also then 









z 

o 

H 

o 



o 

fcj 
O 



O 



o 



58 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON' 




OLD VIEW, CORNER FRANKLIN AND DEVONSHIRE 
STREETS LOOKING TOWARD OLD STATE HOUSE 



editor of the "Congregational- 
ist"), John E. Todd, Central 
Church, then on Winter Street, 
Edward N. Kirk, Mount Vernon 
Clnirch, Edwin B. Weblj, Shaw- 
nnit Church; Protestant Episco- 
pahan : Manton Eastburn, rector 
of Trinity, and bishop of Massa- 
chusetts, W. R. Nicholson, St. 
Paul's Church, John T. Burrill, 
Christ Church, James A. Bolles, 
Church of the Advent, Frederick 
D. Huntington ( formerly Uni- 
tarian, occupying the South Con- 
gregational pulpit which became 
Edward Everett Hale's), Em- 
manuel Church, George M. Ran- 
dall ( in 'sixty-six made bishop 
of Colorado), the Church of 
the Messiah ; the New Jerusalem, or Swedenborgian Church : Thomas 
Worcester and James Reed. The Roman Catholics now had ele\en churches 
in the citv, and were preparing to build the present Cathedral of the Holy 
Cross, at the South End. Their first cathedral, on Franklin Street, dating 
from 1803, the first Catholic church building to be erected in Boston, and 
till the middle 'thirties the only one in the city, had been sold and demolished 
to make wav for a business block, and in lieu of a cathedral their principal 
services were held in the newly erected Church of the Immaculate Con- 
ception. Soutli End, the most sumptuous church edifice of its day. John B. 
Fitzpatrick was the bishop of Boston, now approaching the close of a service 
of more than two score years, — he died in 1866 — to be succeeded by the 
Boston-born Jnlin Joseph Williams, who a decade later, when Boston was 
created an archbishopric, was to become the first archbishop of Boston. 

The Boston daily newspapers were ranking with the foremost in the 
country in character and tone, if not altogether in scope, and were all ably 
conducted, tliough at varying standards. The Daily Advertiser — the "Re- 
spectable Daily" — the oldest daily newspaper in New England, was accorded 
the headship with respect to dignity and breadth of conduct. It was the 
aristocrat among its contemporaries. Charles Flale, the ablest, journalis- 
tically, of the three remarkable sons of Nathan Hale, practically the Daily's 
founder — Nathan, Jr., Cliarles, and Edward Everett, the minister, all of 
whom had been bred to newspaper work by the father, — after conducting- 
the paper as editor-in-chief since the early 'fifties, had withdrawn in 'sixty- 
four to take the United States consulship at Egypt, and Charles F. Dunbar, 
his associate editor since 'fifty-nine, was now the editor-in-chief, administer- 
ino- the paper's affairs, editorially, with exceptional ability. The Journal, 
with its morning and evening editions, was the most enterprising. In 'sixty- 
five its editorial conduct had passed to ^^'illiam W. Clapp, who had been for 
years the capable editor and owner of the Saturday Evening Ga::ette, founded 
by his father, and the leading weekly newspaper. The Herald, also a morn- 
ino- and evening paper, and with a Sunday edition — then the only Sunday 
edition of a daily in Boston, and to remain the only one for a decade, — was- 




BOSTON S CANYON OF TODAY. CORNER OF FRANKLIN AND DLVONSHIKE STRthTS LOOKING NORTH. 1H1!> SAME VIEW 
TAKEN FIFTY YEARS EARLIER IS SHOWN ON PAGE 58 OPPOSITE 



60 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



the paper of the masses. Edwin C. Bailey, its proprietor, was nominally the 
edipr, while the real editors were three or four clever young men consti- 
tuting his editorial staff, at the head of whom was Edwin B. Haskell, who 
a few years later was to become the editor-in-chief of an enlarged and mod- 
ernized Herald to enjoy speedy and large prosperity. The morning Post was 
the leading Democratic journal of New England, cultivating the same field, 
except the political one, as the Advertiser, but freer, airier and more jocund. 
Colonel Charles G. Greene, its founder in the 'thirties, now a veteran jour- 
nalist, was still its lusty editor, with a notable band of able and brilliant 
assistants. The Transcript, then a dainty affair, the favorite evening paper 
with the "best" Bostonians, aiifectionately termed the "Boston Evening Tea 
Table," under the chief editorship of Daniel N. Haskell, the most genial of 
Boston editors. And the Traveler, the popular evening paper, more enter- 
prising — and less literar}- — than its rival the Transcript, directed by its now 
veteran proprietor and nominal editor, Roland Worthington. 

That rare Bostonian, John Albion Andrew, the great war governor, 
was serving his fourth and final term in the governorship in 'sixty-five; and 
the war mayor, Frederic Walker Lincoln, Jr., his fourth and last term in the 
mayoralty of the city. The "New City Hall" — the present heavy-faced 
affair replacing a quieter building of Bulfinch's design (a Court House re- 
modelled for a City Hall), the stone of which was utilized in the City Hall 
Avenue and Court Square facades of the new structure — was just completed, 
and was dedicated in September this year. The population of the city was 
then officially given as one hundred and ninety-two thousand, three hundred 
and twenty-four; the property \aluatinn, three hundred and sex^enty-eight 
million, three hundred and three thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven dol- 
lars; the number of polls, thirty-four thousand, seven hundred and four. 

The streets of the older residential parts retained not a little of their 
early embellishment. Summer Street and Charles Street notably were yet 
beautified by handsome trees. Attached to not a few of the older estates were 
charming gardens. Indeed it was a rarel}' attracti\'e town, the little Boston 
of 'sixty-five, self contained, and prosperous. 









FORT HILL SIJLAKL l.\ IsoJ 




COMMERCIAL AND 
MANUFACTURING BOSTON 




Fifty Years of Progress ix Trade and Commerce — The "Great Fire" 

OF 1872 and the City's Quick Rehabilitation — The Shifting 

Commercial and Financial Centres — The \'arious 

Exchanges and Their Lnfluences upon the 

Development of Boston Business 

: HILE the city was generally prosperous in 'sixty-five the close 
of tlie Civil War found several of the departments of trade 
in which Boston had led depressed, and tiie old-time mer- 
ciiants were obliged to readjust their operations to a new 
urder of things. Especially were declining Boston's ship- 
ping interests with a curtailment of its freight trade. Then 
followed the general depression of 'sixty-seven and 'sixty-eight in the various 
industrial and financial interests of the country consequent upon the inflated 
currency and its disturbed condition, over production in manufactures, and 
the effects in general of the war. In this period Boston suffered more or less, 
in common witli the rest of the country; still the secretary of the Board of 
Trade (then Hamilton A. Hill, later one of the valued contributors to the 
history of commercial Boston ) in Iiis Report for 1867, reviewing that 3"ear, 
was able truthfully to write that "we yet have occasion to congratulate our- 
selves upon the good degree of prosperity which we are enjoying, upon the 
evidences of strength and growth which are multipl_\ing among us, upon the 
position, relatively, which Boston maintains among the great commercial 
communities of the nation." 

With the development of newer business methods, and broader enter- 
prise, as Mr. Hill pointed out, the business abilities of Boston merchants and 
Boston capitalists were lieing displayed in various directions. All branches 
of trade were expanding, and new and diversified industries were being estab- 
lished, while Boston remained, despite the fixture of branch commission houses 
in Xew York, the seat of ownership and management for New England 
manufactures. Also the area of the city proper was being extended to meet 
the demand for larger accommodation \vithin the business quarters. This 
year — 1867 — too, the enlargement of the city by the annexation of adjoining 
municipalities was begun. Roxbury, the first annexed, added to the city's 
area twenty-one hundred acres, and to its valuation, twentj'-six million, five 
lumdred and fifty-one thousand and seven hundred dollars. Two years later — 
1869 — Dorchester was annexed, further increasing the city's area by forty- 
five hundred and thirty-two acres. There had now been added to the original 
upland of the peninsula (six lumdred and ninety acres) eight hundred and 



62 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



eighty acres by the fihing of flats on the South and West, and by these an- 
nexations, eighty-three hundred and thirty-two acres : making the city's total 
area (including eight hundred acres of East Boston, and nine hundred of 
South Boston) ninety-nine hundred and two acres. In 1870 the taxable vaki- 
ation of the enlarged city was estimated by the assessors at five hundred and 
eighty-four million, eighty-nine thousand, four hundred dollars; the popu- 
lation, according to the United States census, was two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand, five hundred and ninety-eight. In his review for that year the secretary 
of the Board of Trade, still IMr. Hill, could make the flattering report : '"This 
community has more than maintained its position as a cnntrolhng centre for 
the manufacture, and, directly or indirectly, the distribution of cotton and 
woolen fabrics, and of boots and shoes, and its general trade is steadily in- 
creasing. The facilities for communication with the interior have multiplied 
and greatly improved in recent years, and we see the beneficent effects of 
what has thus been accomplished in tlie activity and bustle which crowd our 
streets, fill our warehouses, and enliven our wharves and railway stations, to 
a degree which surprises those who visit us after a long absence, or for the 
first time." 

The period between the close of the war and 1870, howe\-er, had its 
dismal aspects, and there were croakers who were bewailing that "Boston 
had seen her best days." The halting in the development of the pioneer rail- 
road systems terminating in Boston into trunk hues \\'estward and North- 
ward, while New York had so developed her railway systems together with 
her canals, as to threaten largely to monopolize the business of the country, 
disposed these croakers to predict that New York would soon be doing all 
the country's importing. Vessels could not then come to Boston except at 
high rates of freight because cargoes could not be obtained here. Those that 
did come were obliged to leave in ballast for other ports. Early in 1868 the 
Ciniard line had withdrawn its regular fortnightly mail steamship, and thus 
regular and direct connection by steamship with Liverpool (via Halifax), 
which, Bostonians mournfully reflected, Boston had been the first American 
port to enjoy, antedating New York by eight years, and had enjoyed for 
nearly twenty-eight years, was entirely cut off. High freight rates were 
demanded, and the line was inadequate to develop the business of the city. 
Boston merchants found it impossible to compete with the lower rates paid 
by New York importers. 

Still the larger-visioned Boston men would not share the despondency 
of the croakers, and their few disheartened fellow merchants, but bent their 
energies to overcome the obstacles that were impeding Boston's commercial 
progress. In 1867 a strong effort was made to increase the trans-Atlantic 
service with the establishment of a Boston line direct to Liverpool, of Amer- 
ican-owned and American built steamshi])s. This was the enterprise of the 
"American Steamship Company" chartered by the State Legislature three 
years before. It \\as backed by large capital and experienced men. Among 
the directors were Edward S. Tobey, then the surviving member of the old 
shipping house of Phineas Sprague & Company, Osborne Howes of Howes 
& Crowell, William Perkins, John L. Little, Avery Plumer, George C. Rich- 
ardson, then the president of the Board of Trade, Chester W. Chapin, after- 
ward president of the Boston & Albany Railroad. Of its capital stock, nearly 
a million dollars were raised by subscriptions, and three or four lumdred 
thousand more bv bonds. Two fine wooden screw steamers, of three thou- 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



63 



sand tons each — the "'lirie'" and the "Ontario" — were huilt; and two more 
were to be constructed, the firm to form a bi-weekly line. But with the build- 
ing of the first two the winile of tiie company's capital that had been raised 




THIS REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS THE NEW CUSTOM HOUSE IX THE CENTRE «ITII THE IMPOSING 

TOWER, HIGHEST BUILDING IN THE CITY; THE BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING ON THE LEFT, 

AND THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ON THE EXTREME RIGHT 



was exhausted. Two trips were made to Liverjiool by the "Ontario," and 
then both ships were in ordinary for a while. Finally they were sold (for 
service in South American waters, where one of them was early wrecked) 
and the company wound u[) its aflr'airs with a total loss in the enterprise. One 
reason assigned for the failure was the construction of the ships of wood; 
iron ships were then superseding the wooden craft. While the failure was 
depressing, and the loss to the stockholders severe, the labors of the company 
were beneficial to the community. As Mr. Hill later remarked (in his mono- 
graph on "Trade, Commerce, and Navigation in the History of Suffolk 
County"), they aroused the i)eople U> the general importance of steamship 
navigation, helped to stimulate the railroads to make the extensions and im- 



64 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

provements necessary to Boston's trade advancement, inspired the local press 
with new spirit in the treatment of all business questions, and were the first 
to fix the attention of the West upon what Boston might do and was about to 
attempt as an export city. At about the time of the launching of the Amer- 
ican Steamship Company the houses of Thayer & Lincoln and Warren & 
Company began to load new steamships at this port. The Warren Steamship 
Company had been formed in 1865 primarily with the idea of substituting 
steamships for sailing vessels for the transportation of immigrants. The 
lading with freight, however, was a work of great difficulty, for the preju- 
dices of shippers were to be overcome, and the co-operation of the railroads 
to be secured. At length, in November, 1869, the trade of this company was 
abandoned, — or more correctly suspended, for five years later, under the 
changed conditions then existing, as we shall see, the business was resumed, 
and profitably. 

The tide began to turn in 1870 with the accomplishment of a number of 
movements which the Boston commercial leaders had been persistently and 
simultaneously pressing. These included : the building of a great stationary 
grain elevator by the Boston and Albany Railroad at East Boston close to 
deep water, making it possible to load steamships here; the securing of an 
equality of freight rates from the West on goods intended for export; the 
obtaining of cotton from the South for light freights for the Steamship lines, 
through the offer of low rates of freight which would divert the cotton from 
New York. (In 1870 the exports of cotton from Boston were valued at one 
hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars, a decade later the value had risen to 
nearly se\'en million, five hundred thousand dollars.) The next year, 1871, 
the system of through bills of lading from interior ports in the West and 
South to Europe, were established. Then, shortly after, was brought about 
the condition which at last enabled Boston again to become a great shipping 
port — the railway companies so reducing their rates as successfullv to com- 
pete with the water routes terminating in New York. In 1870 the Inman 
Company began a fortnightly service between Boston and Liverpool. The 
pioneer steamship was that "City of Boston" which, arriving at this port on 
the sixteenth of January, sailed on her return voyage ten days later from 
New York, and was ne\er more heard from, having presumably foundered at 
sea with all on board. The Inman Boston service continued for nearly twelve 
months, and then its ships were transferred again to New York. Immedi- 
ately upon their departure, howe\'er, or early in 1871, the Cunard Line 
resumed its Boston service, and now, with weekly sailings, under the agency 
of James Alexander, an enthusiastic believer in a great future for Boston as 
a terminus for ocean steamers. Then the Cunard pier at East Boston was 
enlarged and improved, becoming, as was pronounced, the best steamship 
drjck in the country of that day, while Boston merchants combined for the 
improvement of other old docks and the establishment of an extensive system 
of terminal facilities. In his Report for this year the secretary of the Board 
of Trade could congratulate the board upon the marked improvement which 
had now taken place in the foreign commerce of the port: the flourishing 
condition of Boston's trade with the East and \\''est Indies, the Mediterranean, 
the Cape of Good Hope, South America, and the Islands of the Pacific ; and 
upon the new impulse Axhich had been given to the trade of the port with 
Great Britain through the establishment of regular weekly communication 
between Boston and Liverpool direct. While as to the citv's commercial 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON (>S 



progress generally, the secretary remarked with cniiiplaceiicy the satisfactory 
condition of the great interests which had become centered or controlled in 
Boston — the hide, leather, and shoe trade, five-sevenths of all the cotton 
spindles in the United States, and the tish trade. 

In 1872 another long step was taken in the development of terminal 
facilities through the establishment oi the Union Freight Railway, uniting 
the tracks of all tlie principal railroad lines terminating in Boston with each 
other and with all the principal wharves of the city. Thirty years earlier, in 
connection with the original broad schemes of railroad development, the 
Grand Junction Railroad connecting with the docks in East Boston had been 
institiUed and in 1S51 opened, biU it had lain dormant till 1868 or 1869 when 
the newlv established Boston and Albany, — the consolidated Worcester and 
Western Railroads, — acquired it, and so was enabled directly to receive a:id 
deliver ocean freights. But with the new Union Freight etjual facilities were 
afforded all the railroads for similar cheap and easy transit and transhipment 
in the city proper. 

\\'ith the various accijmplishnients that had marked this year and its 
immediate predecessors, attained under the pressure of public opinion, and 
with the substantial aid. it should be remembered, of the local press, the city's 
commercial expansion, its trade with the interiiir of the country largely in- 
creasing", its foreign commerce taking on new and larger life, its growing" 
wealth, there was as late as the ninth of November, every reason for believ- 
ing, as recorded by the secretary of the Board of Trade, that 1872 "would be 
judged after its close as, upon the whole, the most prosperous that Boston had 
ever known." Then came the disastrous "Great Fire." 

Upon a brass tablet set in the wall of the Post Ot^ce, or Federal Build- 
ing, on the ]\Iilk-Street side at the corner of Devonshire Street, close to the 
sidewalk, the passer may read this informing inscription: "This tablet, placed 
here by the Bostonian Society, commemorates the Great Fire of November 
9-10, 1872, which, beginning at the corner of Summer and Kingston Streets, 
extended over an area of sixty acres, destroyed within the business centre 
of the city property to the value of more than sixty million dollars, and was 
arrested in its Northeasterly progress at this point. The mutilated stones 
of this building also record that event."' This ponderous gloomy structure 
was then only partly built — nearly finished to the top of the street story and 
ready for the roof: and the Post Office and Sub-Treasury were occupying 
the old Merchants Exchange building on State Street. Upon the present 
building at the corner of Summer and Kingston Streets is seen another tablet 
marking the spot of the Fire's start : "The Great Boston Fire began here 
November 9. 1872. The Bostonian Society placed this tablet November 9, 
1912." A third might be set up against the Milk-Street wall of the Old 
South Meetinghouse, inscribed: At this point the Northerly progress of the 
Great Fire of 1872 below the corner of I\lilk and \\'ashington Streets was 
checked, and this treasured Iniilding mercifully saved. And a fourth, beside 
the entrance of the present Exchange Building, Number 53 State Street: 
At about this point, where stood the first Boston Exchange building, then 
occupied bv the Post Office and Sub-Treasiu"y the Northeasterly spread of the 
Great Boston Fire of November 9-10, 1872, into State Street and acro.ss 
to other streets and the North End, was stopped by the blowing up of 
neighboring buildings. 

The paths of the fire, broadly spealsing were: from the Sinumer and 



66 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Kingston corner, up Summer Street on both sides to Washington Street ; 
Eastward toward the water; from Summer Street along tlie East side of 
Washington Street Northerly to Milk Street and the Old South Meeting- 
house; from about the then length of Summer Street Northeasterly into the 




*f<»ft5r.i?i'/;W^j; 



i-5*?-/K=3S?M^Sb>-:-.:. ; 



A COMBINATION PICTURE OF RUINS LEFT IN THE WAKE OF THE GREAT BOSTON FIRE 

OF 1K72 

business heart of the city to the 'SUlk and Devonshire Street sides of the new 
Post Office building, and to its rear and around to its East side toward State 
Street. The boundaries were : Summer Street both sides between its then 
foot and Washington Street; Washington, East side, to Milk Street and the 
Old South; Milk to Devonshire Street and the New Post Office; the rear of 
the new Post Office and around it ; ^^'ater Street ; Lindall Street in the 
rear of State Street; Southeastward, then bZastward, across Water and 



TIIK BOOK OF BOSTON 67 



Milk Streets to Oliver Street; Oliver. Pearl, across High, rurcluisc, and 
Broad Streets to the water front. 

The territory Inuned over, nearer sixty-five than sixty acres, comprised 
thirty streets and se\en hundred and seventy-six buildings. Of the buildings, 
seven hundred and nine were of brick, granite, and other stone, and sixty- 
seven of wood. Two church edifices were among them — Trinity, of massive 
stone walls and tower, on Summer Street, and St. Stephen's Church, an en- 
dowed free Episcopal churcii for tlie poor, on Purchase Street. Nearly a thou- 
sand firms (about nine hundred and sixty as finally figured) were burned out. 
Within the burnt district were concentrated the wholesale trade in hides, 
leather, and shoes: in wool; in domestic and foreign dry goods; paper; hard- 
ware; earthenware, in part; ready-made clothing. Three hundred estaljlish- 
ments in the wholesale dry goods trade alone were swept away. On Summer 
Street, one hundred and twelve firms were burned out. On Pearl Street, 
one hundred and eighty-five, mostly in the leather and boot-and-shoe trade. 
On Federal Street, ninety-two. On Franklin Street, a part of the wholesale 
dry-goods district, forty. The total value of the wool destroyed was esti- 
mated at about four million, five hundred thousand dollars. The buildings 
of seven national banks were destroyed. With the exception of a few streets 
near the water, the area devastated was wholly devoted to business purposes, 
and the buildings which covered it and went down were, after the disaster, 
without excessive exaggeration described, as "in size, in architectural eft'ect, 
and in general adaptation to commercial uses, certainly unsurpassed, perhaps 
unequalled, by those of any other city in the world." Therefore, the value 
of property destroyed — the conservative estimate finally fixed the total loss 
at twenty-five millions — was "out of all proportion to the extent of the land 
burnt over, as compared with other great fires in (ither cities." This small- 
ness of the area cpiite disgusted my associate correspondent, Crapsey (I was 
tlien on the A'rr>.' York Times and came over Saturday night on the Shore 
Line "owl" train with Crapsey to "do" the Fire as a Times "special" or 
"staff correspondent," as would 1)e the loftier title now), when, standing in 
the midst of the ruins we surveyed the Burnt District o'er. Crapsey had Ijeen 
of the Times' specials who had "done" the Chicago Fire a year before, and 
the total of twenty-six hundred acres there l.)urned over made Boston's sixty- 
five look lilliputian. At first he was for going back to New York and leaving 
me to cover this "little Boston thing" alone. But as .soon as he realized the 
richness of the property that had been crowded into this small space, and the 
nature of it, and saw the no\-el features of the affair, his newspajier sense of 
the real bigness of the Boston "story" was duly aroused, and he remained 
"on the job." 

The causes of the Fire, or rather the quick and appalling course of it. 
were \ariouslv state<l. Chief among those emimerated were: confusion and 
dela\' in gi\ing the first alarm, so that when the first engines arri\-ed the 
fiames had s]iread from the l)uilding in which they had originated (and speed- 
ily swept from basement to roof, and over all the floors, by means of a wood- 
b'ned elevator shaft) to its neighljors and across to the building on the oppo- 
site corner of Kingston Street, and although the other alarms calling the 
whole department were sounded in (piick succession, when the other engines 
arrived the fire here was then be\ond control; scarcity of water in this 
(|uarter. due to the inefficiency of the pi])es to carr\- the great (|uaiuity of 
water rei|uired, and their fittings with h\'<Irants of an old-fashione(l t\'pe, the 



68 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

quarter having been but recentl}- rebuilt from a residential to a business one, 
and the water pipes not yet having been enlarged to meet the new conditions ; 
the mansard roofs of wood and tar, tinder boxes, topping the blocks of 
granite and of brick; the inability of the firemen to attack methodically the 
circle of fire, after it had enveloped the business heart, and when the engines 
and firemen had poured in from the suburbs and distant cities in response to 
the telegraph calls for help. Another contributing cause was the condition 
of the fire department itself. At this time the strange horse disease, to which 
was given the name "the epizooty." had been raging for a month or more, 
and had practically disabled nearly all the horses in town, so that the depart- 
ment was without horse service for the engines and wagons, and these had 
to be drawn by drag-ropes by hand. Still it was not shown that the apparatus 
thus manned instead of horsed was much, if any, delayed in arriving. Where 
they could be handled effectively the mass of engines, local and out-of-town, 
were brought into admirable service. No more gallant or more skilfully 
directed fight was ever seen in fire fighting than that which held back the 
roaring Fire and prevented its crossing to the West side of Washington 
Street between the Summer-Street corner and the revered Old South. But 
there were parts where nothing could be done, and here the Fire was left to 
its own way. The buildings were high and the streets narrow. There was 
no point where a stand could be made by the engines for any length of time. 
As Edward Stanwood records in his account of the Fire in the "Memorial 
History of Boston," scarcely an attempt was made to stop its movement 
towards the wharves. "Perhaps," Mr. Stanwood remarks in this account, 
the best of all the short ones printed, "there was no single point where the 
amazing power of the Fire was so well observed as from the empty space 
where Fort Hill had been. The hill had been cut away but not built upon. 
Between it and the flames was Pearl Street, solidly built with handsome 
granite stores, where the shoe trade of the city had its headquarters. It 
happened that the Fire attacked the whole street at once. Hardly five minutes 
elapsed after the appearance, to those watching from the Fort Hill space, 
of the first spark in one of the stores, before the whole block was a mass of 
roaring Fire. The great wareliouses were converted into as many furnaces, 
and the heat and light were so intense that at a distance of several hundred 
feet it was painful to face the Fire many minutes at once. In almost as little 
time as it requires to read the account, the walls grew red-hot, the floor 
timbers began to fall against the walls, and the great structures tottered and 
fell like a house of cards, but with a thundering crash." I remember passing 
from Milk Street along one of these streets — my recollection was that it was 
Pearl Street, but Mr. Stanwood's description sho\\s that it could not have 
been that street, maybe it was Congress — and seeing the flames pouring from 
the roofs of the lines of buildings on either side, and not an engine or a soul 
in sight. 

The Fire broke out shortly after seven o'clock in the evening — a Satur- 
day evening, at the close of a l^eautiful late Indian summer day — and con- 
tinued through that night, a soft moonlight night, and through Sunday till 
darkness fell, when the danger was believed to be over. But at midnight of 
Sunday it burst out anew, at the corner of Washington and Summer Streets, 
and then followed that noble and successful fight to prevent it leaping across 
Washington Street to the retail district toward the Common. By eight 
o'clock, in less than half an hour after the first alarm was rung in, the man- 



THE BUOK (JF BOSTOX 



69 



sard roofs on the Xortlierly side of Summer Street were well alight, and the 
building- on the o])i)osite corner of King'ston Street had also igiiited. (I am 
n<j\v quoting from Mr. Harold Murdock's paper on "Some Contributing 
Causes of This I'^ire." read befnre the Bostonian Society on the ninth of 




BOSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BVILDIXG, HOME OF ONE OF THE MOST AGGRESSIVE 
COMMERCIAL BODIES IN ANY AMERICAN CITY 



X'ox'eniber, 1912, the Fire's fortieth anni\-ersary, a most \aluable chapter in 
the authentic history of the Fire.) The progress of tlie flames up Summer 
Street was slow, but fast into Winthrop Square. It was fastest of all, as Mr. 
Stanclwood also records, when it swung Northward into the business heart 
of the city. Trinity Church stcHid till between three ami four o'clock Sun- 
da}' morning when it ignited from the Conflagration in its rear. The buildings 
on both cijrners of Washington and Franklin Streets were aflame before the 
Fire had crossed Chatincy on Summer Street. The granite warehouses that 



70 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

lined Franklin Street when attacked soon crumbled in the fierce heat. The 
ponderous walls and massive tower of the scuttled Trinity Church, however, 
while chipped and broken, resisted the onslaught, and remaining alone amidst 
the acres of fallen structures, made the most picturesque of ruins. \Mien 
the tire had passed, one standing on Washington Street could look through 
Summer or Franklin Street across to the harbor and see the masts of shipping 
there. 

It was a stunning- blow, but the recovery was cpiick. Before the Fire 
was fully subdued many of the burned out firms had found new locations, 
and were making ready for reestablishment in them. For a few hours on 
Sundav the excited city was nearing- a panic. Thousands of people thronged 
the burning district, and massed about the toiling firemen. The lawless and 
thieves were getting active, plying their nefarious business. But the authori- 
ties were not long in mastering the situation. The police were strengthened 
bv a brigade of militia, and the city was put under military rule. A cordon of 
guards was placed around the whole of the liurnt district, other companies 
w'ere stationed in various ]3arts of the city read}- to march at a moment's 
notice, and guards patrolled the streets at night. The Old South ]\Ieeting- 
house was again, as during the Siege of Bost(jn a century before, utilized 
for military purposes, and became a barrack. The military rule continued for 
a week or more, till affairs had assumed a normal condition and all danger 
was over. Measures of relief for the suft'erers bv the disaster who could not 
care for themselves were organized at once. Generous ofi^ers of assistance 
were received from many cities, none more generous than those from Chicago, 
in grateful recognition of Boston's aid to her people at the tin-ie of her Great 
Fire ; but all were declined with appreciative words of thanks. Boston could 
relieve herself without assistance. A fund of nearly three hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars was contributed by Boston citizens and placed at the disposal 
of the relief committee, and when all necessary relief had been furnished the 
committee with its final report returned nearly twent}' thousand dollars of the 
fund to the donors. The State Legislature, immediately after the Fire sum- 
moned in special session to act upon measures called for by the city authori- 
ties, passed, among other acts, a stringent building-law for the city which 
would prevent the reerection of the hazardous class of structures. Rebuilding 
in accordance with the provisions of this law was then at once begun; and 
within a year the burnt district had become largely rebuilt, with finer, safer 
and more substantial structures than those that had been swept away, and a 
considerable number of them of refined and even picturesque architecture 
designed by leading architects. Numerous changes and improvements, also, 
had been made or were making in the street lines of the district : Pearl, 
Franklin, and Oliver Streets were extended: Arch extended from Franklin 
Street: Washington, Summer, Congress, Federal, ]\Iilk, Hawley, Arch, and 
Water Streets widened ; and Post Office Square in front of the Federal build- 
ing laid out ; the whole at a cost to the city of some three and a half million 
dollars. Another beneficent result of the Fire was the ultimate reorganization 
of the fire department, and its establishment upon a business basis, with the 
placing of it under the direction and control of a paid fire commission ap- 
pointed by the mayor with the approval of the city council. 

The long period of business depression which the countrj' at large suf- 
fered from 1873 to 1877, was one of the most trying in the history of com- 
mercial Boston. There was an almost unprecedented shrinkage in values. 



Till-: liOOK Ol" I'.OSTOX 



1 



Monev was scarce. Rates of interest ranged exceptit^nally high. Nevertheless 
commercial Boston met the situation, and overcame it. While the work of 
rel)uiiding and reconstructing- the burnt district was advancing, the railroad 
system was enlarging, and terminal facilities expanding". In November, 1873, 
the Hoosac Tunnel through the Hoosac Mountain, which had been first pro- 
posed as a canal tunnel in connecti<in with a Boston and Hudson-River canal 
I^roject of the mitldle 'twenties, and which as a railroad tunnel had Ijeen 
twentv-three A-ears in cutting through, the costlv enterprise for the second 
half of this period being in the hands of the State (and denominated by the 




THE BOSTON B0.1RD OF TR.^DE BlILDINC; OF 1916 



punsters, weary o\'er the annual agitation of the matter in the Legislature, 
"The Great Bore"), was finally com])leted; and the next year was made a 
part of the system of the Boston and Fitchburg- Railroad, which thereupon 
expanded from the status of a local road to that of a trunk line. Trains 
began running regularly through the tunnel in 1875. Four years later, in 
1879. the Hoosac Tunnel Dock and Elevator Company, organized under the 
auspices of the Fitchburg Railroad Company, for the purpose of affording 
furtiier facilities at the port of Boston for the handling of through freight, 
and especially of the export traf^c to European ports, acquired several old 
docks on the Charlestown side of the harbor, and reconstructing them into 
substantial piers, established here the present system of terminals on an ex- 
tensive scale, with ample warehouses, great grain elevator, and tracks extend- 
ing the length (if the piers alongside steamship berths. 



72 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

.Meanwhile, in the single year of 1874. the area and pnpulation of the 
city had expanded through more annexations of adjoining municipalities. 
Simultaneously, on January fifth, 1874, the city of Charlestown, and the 
towns of Brighton and West Roxhury were annexed : the former bringing 
an area of five hundred and eighty-six square acres, and a ])opulation (cen- 
sus of 1870) of twenty-eight thousand, three hundred and twenty-three; 
Brighton, area twenty-two hundred and seventy-se\en square acres, popula- 
tion, forty-nine hundred and sixty-seven; West Roxbury, seventy-eight hun- 
dred and forty-eight scjuare acres, and eighty-six hundred and eighty-three 
inhabitants. 

With the re\-ival of business in 1878. after the long depressii.m. a period 
of great prosperity and development began. Xew life was given to the 
organizations of merchants. In 1873 the Board of Trade had undertaken 
to establish in the ^Merchants' Exchange a central headquarters for all the 
business exchanges of the citv. To this end the fine building was remodeled. 
The main hall was occupied by a revived ^Merchants' Exchange and Reading 
Room; and in an adjoining, quite imposing chamber, reached from the general 
Exchange by a short flight of marble steps, was quartered the newly organ- 
ized Commercial Exchange — formed in 1871, succeeding the Corn Exchange, 
with a meml)ership representing the flour, grain and hay trades. These, and 
the Shoe and Leather Exchange, and the Boston Fish Bureau (organized 
1875) remained the only important exchange till 1877. Then was organized 
the Produce Exchange, composed (if leading firms in the wholesale produce, 
provision, butter and cheese, and fresh fish businesses. Meanwhile the Shoe 
and Leather Exchange, reorganized and strengthened, had become established 
in new and enlarged quarters, on Bedford Street, in the then heart of the 
shoe and leather district. In 1879 the Furniture Exchange was established, 
and brought into direct communication with furniture exchanges in other 
cities. In 1885, with the rapid development of building operations, the 
Master Builders Association was formed, and the Mechanics" Exchange, an 
old organization started in 1857. at first a private enterprise, was enlarged 
and extended. The Master Builders Association provided a business ex- 
change with two classes of members, corporate and non-corporate. The 
corporate members were to consist of mechanics only, carrying on business 
as master builders in one of the constructive mechanical trades employed 
in the erection of buildings ; the non-corporate, persons carrying on branches 
of business subsidiary to the mechanical trades represented in the corpora- 
tion. The same year, 1885. was also marked by the organization, on Septem- 
ber twenty- fourth of the great Boston Chamber of Commerce, by the union 
of the Commercial and Produce Exchanges, an enabling act having been 
passed by the Legislature. With its establishment the Merchants Exchange 
as such was closed. Four years later the dignified and stately State-Street 
building was taken down, and its corner-stone box deposited as its memorial 
in the custody of the Bostonian Society. 

This Chamber of Commerce was the third of its name projected in Bos- 
ton. The first was established in 1795 at a time of particular activity of 
Boston merchants in various directions. It existed, however, for a few 
years only, and little of its histon- is recorded. The second was instituted 
nearly half a century later. — in 1836. — and in its organization were concerned 
the foremost merchants and traders of that day. The first president was 
William Sturgis; the first \ice-presidents were Thomas B. \\^ales, Robert 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



73 



G. Shaw, and David Henshaw : the huard of (Hrectors inchided fiirty-eiglit 
leading husiness men; the treasurer was James C. Wild; the secretary, George 
M. Thacher. Suljsequent presidents were : Tliomas B. Wales, Nathan Apple- 
ton, and Abbott Lawrence ; vice-presidents, Francis J. OHver, Charles Hen- 
shaw, \\'illiam Appleton, John Bryant, Amos Lawrence. Stated meetings 
were to be held twice a year, in January and July. At tlie second annual 
meeting, in January, 1837. the membership was reported as rising three 
hundred "shii)owners, importers, grocers, traders." This Chamber, says 
Hamilton A. Hill, took an active interest in public affairs for three or four 
years; then its interest waned. It had discussed, among other vital issues, 
the usury laws, and had adopted unanimously a memorial to the Legislature 




BOSTO.N STOCK E.\l.H.\.N(j E INTERIOR 



for a repeal or nindificaiidn of the laws relating to interest on monev ; and 
its last meeting, held on March fourteenth, 1843, was called to receive a com- 
munication from Canada relating to proposed railway connection between 
Canada and Boston. The olijects of the ]iresent Chamber of Commerce, as 
defined in its constitution, like thrise of the Chamber of 1836-1843, are to 
C(jnsider the welfare of commercial Boston, but on a far broader scale. The\' 
are: "To promote just and equitable jjrinciples of trade; to establish and 
maintain uniformity in commercial usages; to correct any abuses which may 
exist; to acquire, preserve, and disseminate valuable business infonnation; 
to adjust controversies and misunderstandings between its members; and, 
generally, to advance tlie interests of trade and commerce in the city of Bos- 
ton." These object.s, and others taken on as the city advanced and its inter- 
ests multiplied, have been met by the Chamber in a large and liberal way; 



74 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

and it has exerted a powerful and wholesome influence on Boston's civic as 
well as commercial affairs. The Chamber was originally housed in the 
Quincy Market building, occupying a spacious hall above the market and 
adjoining rooms. Henry B. Goodwin, a leading merchant in the flour and 
grain trade, was the first president; F. N. Cheney, treasurer, William H. 
Pearson, secretary; and the directors, merchants in the various lines repre- 
sented in the organization. The Chamber started with eight hundred mem- 
bers. The number rapidly increased in the years immediately following; 
and when the present building was completed and occupied, in 1902, — that 
unique architecturally granite structure, irregular in plan to conform to the 
limitation of its site, at the junction of India Street and Central Wharf, with 
its rounded front carried up as a tower capped by a lofty conical roof 
pierced with high dormer windows, and the corner on India Street similarly 
rounded into a smaller tower, now in curious contrast with its neighbor, the 
reconstructed Custom House, all tower above the roof, or dome of the original 
granite-pillared structure of the 'forties, — upon the erection of this house of 
its own its membership had more than doubled. A few years later, with 
its reorganization and expansion the Chamber had become the largest in 
membership of its class in the country. 

Also in the prolific year of 1885 was incorporated the Boston Fruit and 
Produce Exchange, with its home at first also in the Quincy Market building. 
The same year the Boston Wholesale Grocers Association was instituted. 
The next year, 1886, the Boston Executive Business Association, composed 
of the various trade organizations in the city, then some twenty in number, 
each organization represented by three members, or delegates, was formed, 
for the purpose of protecting and advancing "the general interests of Boston 
through combined action by its various business associations." The control 
of this useful organization's affairs was vested in an executive committee; 
and standing committees were established on transportation, postal service, 
taxation, and customs. Regular monthly meetings, except in the summer 
months, with dinners, were provided for, when reports, discussion, and action 
might be had "over the walnuts and the Avine." In 189 1 the name was 
changed to the Boston Associated Board of Trade. Meanwhile a Massachu- 
setts Board of Trade was instituted, on a similar basis, with headquarters in 
Boston, in which were brought into association with the Boston organization 
delegates from the boards of trade of the various cities of the State. 

Boston was the first among the larger American cities to adopt the 
policy of concentrating the leading branches of trade and commerce in locali- 
ties representing the different interests. With the single exception of the 
financial quarter, which has centered in and aljout State Street from colonial 
days when this was King Street, these trade centres have shifted from time to 
time with the expansions of the business parts and their encroachments on 
the resident sections. The earliest to concentrate were the dry goods dealers. 
These naturally gathered aliout the heart of the resident parts. At first the 
retailers and wholesalers kept together. The earliest distinctive dry goods 
centre was Hanover Street, and neighboring cross streets. Hanover Street 
was then nearer the centre of the city's population than any other street given 
over to business, and also was the thoroughfare travelled by incomers from 
the northern towns and country by the stage-coach lines, and from Maine 
l\v the steamboats. It was here in the 'thirties and earlier that several after- 
day Boston dry goods merchants of leading, wholesalers and retailers, as 



THE \](H)K OV BOSTON 



I ,•) 



James M. Beebe, Lyman Xicliuls, Hben 13. Jordan, the founder ut Jordan. 
Marsh Company, began their careers. Mr. Jordan, in a reminiscent mood. 
once told me, with glee, how on steamer days he used to get down to his 
Hanover-Street shop before daylight, and have it invitingly open upon the 
arrival of the ;\Iaine passengers in the early morning; whose custom he par- 




WASHINCTON STREET FROM FRANKLIN STREET TODAY 



ticularlv delighted to catch for ]\Iaine was his home state. Gradually the trade 
reached into Tremont Row, into the lower jjart of Washington Street then 
ending at Dock .S(|uare, into Court .Street, and between Court Street and 
School Street. Among the wholesale merchants established in these quarters are 
mentioned the Lawrences, the Appletons, the Tappans, and Cardner Brewer. 
A little later the wholesalers and retailers separated. The former established 



76 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

themselves first roundabout State and Kilby Streets. Then by degrees about 
Doane and Central Streets, Liberty Square, and Water Street. At that 
period, or between the latter 'thirties and the 'fifties, Boston was the chief 
dry goods market in the country, due to the developing New England domes- 
tic manufactures. Next the centre moved to the region about Milk Street; 
next to Pearl Street : then Federal, Devonshire, Franklin Streets, Winthrop 
Square, where the Fire of 1872 found and overwhelmed it. During these 
shiftings of the wholesale trade the retail trade began to reach Southward. 
The pioneer in this direction was George W. Warren, with his "palatial" 
store on Washington Street near Summer. To this store later Jordan, Marsh 
& Company succeeded. Fifty years ago Jordan, Marsh & Company occupied 
the store on the ground floor of the building between Central Court, opening 
next above Summer Street, — once a choice residential place, later a little 
theatre and favorite chop house ("Billy" Park's) quarter, long since built 
over, — and Avon Street then Avon Place; and above the store, reached by a 
handsome broad flight of stairs from the street, was Chickering Hall. Fol- 
lowing George W. Warren came Hill, Lincoln & Gear, with their dry goods 
establishment at the corner of Washington and West Streets. Then C. F. 
Hovey, founder of C. F. Hovey & Company, estabHshing himself on Winter 
Street, and originating the "One Price System," a new departure in dry 
goods retailing. The read}' made clothing trade, which originated in the old 
sailors" outfitting estaljlishments, and beginning at the North End, after it 
rose to the standard of respectability, and attained the dignity of a branch 
of the wholesale jobbing dry goods trade, remained centered at the North 
End till about the 'fifties and 'sixties when it worked Southward toward the 
then retail dr}- goods centre. The hardware trade, in the 'thirties next in im- 
portance to the dry goods business, for a I'jng time centered about Dock 
Square, Union Street and Merchants Row. Tiie flour and grain trade centre 
was from the beginning on the water front, with the old Corn Exchange at 
the head of Commercial Street. The great Bostiin wool trade, to become 
the largest of any American city, was early distinctively centered on Federal 
and Pearl Streets. Later it took in High Street; and finally concentrated as 
now on the extension of Summer Street beyond Atlantic Avenue. The shoe 
and leather business, which began to assume large proportions in the "thirties, 
and was early to become the greatest industry of New England with Boston 
as its market centre, was earliest concentrated near the water front on Broad, 
North and South Market, and Chatham Streets. Shortly it moved upon 
Blackstone Street. Next it occupied Pearl Street, driving out the dry goods 
trade. Then High Street was invaded. After the Fire of 1872, wiping 
out the district, it centered about old Church Green, Lincoln, and South 
Streets. The fish trade, foremost of Boston industries from Colony days, 
originally centered, in connection with the salt trade, on T and Long \\'har\-e5 
and Commercial Street. At T \\'iiarf on Atlantic Avenue it remained till 
the completion of the grand new Fish Pier, adjoining the grander Common- 
wealth Pier, on South Boston side in 19 14. Then it reluctantly moved to the 
new site. But in 19 15 many of the merchants returned to the old stand and 
revived it. 





BOSTON'S ACCESS TO THE SEA 

The Development of Her Port — Her Advantages for Coastwise and 
International Ocean Traffic — Hkr Great Fishing Industry 

^f^HEN, in 1839, Boston was selected l)y the Cnnarders in pref- 
erence to \ew York or otiier leading seaboard cities as the 
American terminus of their pioneer steamship line, the rea- 
sons given were: the superiority of her harbor and wharf 
accnmmodations; her nearness to the lower British provinces 
and convenience of access from them; and the shorter dis- 
tance of Boston than of any of the other ports from Europe. 

As for the harbor we have this picturescjue presentation of its character 
in an early official report, made by Professor Henry Mitchell of the United 
States advisory council : "Its great merit lies in a happy conjunction of many 
favorable elements, among which . . . are the facility and safetv of its 
approaches, the ample width and depth of its entrances, and above all the 
shelter and tranquility of its roadsteads. Perhaps there is no other harbor 
in the world where the inlets of the ocean are better adjusted to the amplitude 
of the interior basins, or whose excellent holding-grounds are so easy of 
access and yet so land-locked. . . . Her interi(ir water space is large, but 
is divided by chains of islands into basins which offer sufficient room for the 
heaviest ships to ride freely at anchor, and sufficient trancjuility for the frailest 
fishing-boat." Such were its natural conditions. A quarter-century after the 
start of steamship service its advantages had materiallv decreased. In a 
caustic article in the nld "Xortli American Rexiew," of January, 1868, criti- 
cizing Boston's Commercial shortcomings and contrasting them with Chicago's 
energetic development, an article which pnifoundly stirred Boston, and stimu- 
lated the concerted and systematic action for which it called, Charles Francis 
Adams thus sharplv depicted its condition then: "Nature gave that citv a 
beautiful and convenient harljor, and she placidly left Nature to take care of it. 
At last her citizens began to have a vague idea that the condition of their 
harbor was not satisfactory, — that Nature had grown fickle and was neglect- 
ing her duty. By this time the mischief had gone far, and the harbor was 
rapidly growing unfit for vessels of heavv draught. The truth was, that 
Nature had made it a purely tidal harbor, owing its existence to the current 
of no great river, but to a system of interior reservoirs and small rivers com- 
bined. Into those great basins, which a century ago covered a water area 
of eight thousand acres, more than seventy million tons of water once poured 
twice in each twenty-four hours through a few narrow channels, and then 
again quickly flowed back to the ocean, reinforced in volume by many fresh- 



78 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

water tributaries. The rise and fall of this great volume of water had scoured 
out these channels, and, if undisturbed, promised forever to keep them clear. 
This tidal way created Boston, and the whole history of Boston has been one 
long record of short-sighted abuse of this first gift of Nature. In i/J^ 
Boston proper included less than six hundred acres; at present it includes 
some two thousand, all of which excess has been robbed from the reservoirs 
of the harbor. Had that harbor been Boston's worst enemy, she could not 
have persecuted it more. In all directions embankments, weirs, mill-dams, 
water powers, dikes, and bridges have done their work bravely, and the 
seventy million tons of tidal flow have been worked down to forty millions. 
Within these fifty years of improvements, the main channel has narrowed 
five hundred feet, and the depth of water has decreased from four to twenty 
feet. The flats were filled in. the creeks were dammed up, the channels 
were bridged, the marsh turned into meadow, the brooks into mill-ways, the 
ponds into reservoirs. The ultimate result of this process was not difficult to 
predict. The depth of water in Boston Harbor decreased portentously. 
Large European steamers could come in only at certain states of the tide; 
the harbor ceased to be either cheap or convenient. Then, the mischief being 
fairly done, State and city awoke and girded themselves to their work. Ten 
years of talking was done and still matters grew worse. Then gradually 
some idea of science and system dawned on the citizens. Legislatures ceased 
talking and committees ceased investigating, and a commission of scientific 
men were appcjinted to see what the}- could make out of it. They went cjuietly 
to work and studied currents, measured channels, observed the tidal flood, — ■ 
sought out at once the cause ami the remedy of the evil. Science proved that 
the mischief was not yet all done, and that Boston could restore its harl^or 
b)' energ-etic and persistent action." And ultimately such action was taken 
with satisfactory results. 

The Cunard pier at East Boston was provided by the East Boston Com- 
pany (the compan}' which had bought Noddle's Island in 1833, and built 
it up into East Boston) with three docks to receive steamships of the largest 
size in that day, and leased to the Cunard Company for twenty years, reserv- 
ing no rent except the usual charge of wharfage of goods or freight. This 
was the first of the scenes of notable terminal facilities at the harlior line 
which were furnished in after years, as related in the foregoing chapter. 

The beginning of the Cunard ser\ice in the summer of 1840 was marked 
bv memorable public demonstrations, the story of which makes a spirited 
chapter in Boston's commercial history. The initial steamer, the "Unicorn," 
Captain Douglas, arrived on the second of June, from Liverpool in sixteen 
days. As she steamed up the harbor she was greeted with cheers by throngs 
of citizens lining the wharves ; with salutes and display of flags by the United 
States war frigate, "Columbus"' off the Navy Yard : more salutes and flag- 
displav l)v the revenue cutter "Hamilton," and other craft. On the fifth, 
the mayor and city council ga\e a complimentary dinner in Faneuil Hall to 
Captain Douglas and Edward Cunard, son of the proprietor of the new 
line who had come over with Captain Douglas. The company at talile num- 
bered nigh three hundred, and included, besides the hosts and the two prin- 
cipal guests, members of the Legislature and of the judiciary of the State; 
officers of the Luiited States go\ernment : the British consul; a number of 
representatives of foreign nations; and "distinguished strangers" who hap- 
pened in town. The mayor, then Jonathan Chapman, presided, and "elegant 



THR BOOK OF BOSTOX 



70 



speeches" were made, "exprcssinf^- the interest felt in, ami kindly sentiment 
aronsed by the uccasion." On the eighteenth of Jnlv the "Britannia," the 
first of the company's large-sized packets, arrived at the Cnnard Dock, fonr- 
teen days and eight hours from Liverpool. This event was celebrated by a 
.grand "Cnnard Festival" held in East Boston, in honor of Samuel Cunard, 
"the spirited projector and conductor of this enterprise." Dinner was served 
in a great paxilion to two thousand persons. The galleries were arranged 
for the ladies. Josiah Ouincy. Jr., presided at this feast, and the speech- 
makers included Judge Story, the eltler Josiah Ouincy, then president of 
Harvard, and Daniel Webster. On the seventh of August the "Acadia" 
arrives, twelve and a half days from Liverpool, including her stoppage at 
Halifax, and there is more exchange of congratulation between the steamship 
folk and the Boston merchants. 




CUTTING THE CUNARDER BRITANNIA OUT OF THE ICE I.N BOSTON HARBOR, 

JANUARY, 1S44 



Four years after, in January, 1844, a serious check u\)nn the service was 
threatened through a most unusual happening'. This was tlie freezing over 
of the harlior, when the "Britannia" was at her dock, and ])reparing- for the 
return trip. Unless she coukl be cut out and the way to the sea be cleared 
for her, her sailing on schedule time would be impossible. Thereupon a 
meeting of merchants with the mayor, then ^Martin Brimmer, was held on 
'change, and it was unanimously agreed that the steamer should be at once 
released, and without expense to the owners. .\ committee was appointed 
to collect a fund to meet the expen.se, and to make a contract with the local ice 
■companies for cutting two canals in the ice. One was to be cut from the 
East Boston Ferry to the open sea; the other, from the ferry to India Wharf; 
into these other channels to be opened if necessary. The contract price for 
the job was fifteen hundred dollars. The graphic story of this affair is 
-c|uoted from the diary of Richard H. Dana, senior, "I went down to see the 
work in company with hundreds, or rather thousands, of others. The scene 
•was peculiar and exciting in the extreme. The whole harbor was one field 
of ice, frozen on a perfect le\el. tlmugh somewhat roughl\- in pai'ts. and strouf 



80 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

enough to bear heavy loads of merchandise drawn by cattle. Two gangs of 
men were at work, one beginning at the wharves and cutting down, the other 
beginning at the clear water and cutting up. Each gang numbered over a 
hundred. Perhaps there were four hundred workmen in all. . . . There 
were booths erected for the sale of refreshments at different parts of the 
track ; and from the end of Long Wharf to the place where the lower gang 
was at work, a distance of fi\-e miles, there was a well-marked foot-way, and 
travellers upon it were as frequent as on the great highway to a city on a 
festive day." The "Britannia" was finally cut out on the third of February 
and steamed slowly through the open way at her advertised time, amid cheers 
from a multitude of spectators. This tight freezing of the harbor though 
unusual was not unprecedented. Eight years before, in February, 1836, the 
inner harbor was frozen, and a pilot walked from Quarantine Island to the 
citv on the ice, while skating was good as far as Castle Island. And again, 
thirteen years after the freeze of 1844 — in January, 1857 — a way through 
the ice had to be cut for the passage of the "America" to the sea, and that of 
the inbound "Arabia" to her dock the next day. 

During the decade and a half preceding the Civil War, the fast-sailing 
clipper ship was in vogue competing with the steamship. In the summer of 
1844 Enoch Train started his celebrated "Diamond Line" of fast Boston 
and Liverpool packets. Train was a keen Boston merchant, who had been 
engaged in the leather trade, and in connection therewith in trade with South 
America. His Diamond service was begun with four clippers, "all first class,. 
Medford-built, copper-fastened, coppered, and fast sailing ships," as his ad- 
vertisement announced. Then followed, especially built for his line, in rapid 
succession, a fleet of twelve superb vessels turned out from the yard of 
Donald McKay, in East Boston. These were : the "Joshua Bates," the "Anglo 
Saxon," the "Anglo American," the "Washington Irving," the "Ocean 
Monarch." the "Parliament," the "Daniel Webster," the "Star of Empire,"" 
the "Chariot of Fame," the "Staffordshire," the "Cathedral," and the "John 
Eliot Thayer," all famous for beauty of design, attractiveness of equipment, 
and, above all, speed. With the building of these ships Donald McKay was. 
first brought into prominence as a shipbuilder, and through them his ship 
yard became celebrated. He was the chief of three notable ship-building 
and ship-sailing brothers. It was in honor of them that Longfellow wrote 
his "Building of the Ship." Donald McKay was first established in New- 
buryport, and in his yard there first began the building of wooden clippers. 
He estaljlished himself in East Boston in 1845, where he received Mr. Train's 
commissions. In 1846 he launched here a ship for the New York packet line,, 
of fourteen hundred tons, the largest merchantman then in the American 
service. Famous clippers were also turned off the stocks in McKay's East 
Boston vard for Train's California service at the time of the California gold 
rush. Among these were the largest clippers ever built, in size varying from 
fifteen hundred tons to twenty-four hundred tons. There was the "Flying 
Cloud," seventeen hundred tons, which made the run to San Francisco in 
ninety-two days. Another was the "Sovereign of the Seas," sailed by Don- 
ald's brother, Lauchlan, which left New York in August, 185 1, and reached 
San Francisco, after being nearly wrecked on the way, in one hundred and' 
two days : considered quick time for the season. She then went to Hono- 
lulu and loaded for New York; and her return voyage was made to Sandy 
Hook in the "unprecedented time," as recorded, of eighty-two days. Another 




a S 



£ S < 



Oi ^ Oi 



S2 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



famous McKay clipper accomplished the run from New York to Liverpool in 
two weeks, beating the Cunard's speed one day by one hundred and forty 
miles. Another made the run from Boston to Liverpool in twelve days and 
six hours. McKay's most ambitious achievement was the building of a 
"giant four-master" — the "Great Republic," forty-five hundred and fifty-fi\-e 
tons, three hundred and twenty-five feet long, fifty-three feet wide, and with 
four decks. She was intended for the Califomia trade; but, unfortunately, 
she was burned at her dock in New York when ready to sail on her maiden 
voyage. Partly repaired, she was employed for a while in less romantic 
service. 

The McKay yard flourished, turning out fine craft, into the 'sixties. 
Other East Boston ship-builders of this period were D. D. Kelley and Jackson 
& Ewell, both established in 1848; and Samuel Hall, who had begun ship- 
building in Duxbury. Train's Diamond Line continued successfully for fif- 
teen years, or until the general use of screw-steamers, and transported in all 
one hundred and forty thousand passengers. The ^^'arren Line of steam- 
ships (named for George W^arren, whom Train sent out from Boston as his 
agent in Liverpool) \\as the direct successor of the Diamond Line. Train 
ultimately failed ; anil the firm of George Warren & Company established a 
prosperous new business on the ruins of the old one. 

The steamship service began to expand in the mid-seventies with the 
development of terminal facilities. In 1874 the great trade in the shipment 
of live cattle by steamship to Europe was established. In 1875 the National 
Line tried its fortunes in the Boston trade with some of its best steamships. 
But the passenger business not proving as remunerative as the company 
expected the ships were withdrawn within the year. Li 1876 the Leland 
Line entered upon a business in Boston which grew to a remarkable extent. 
Its agents, Thayer & Lincoln, developed a line which in about six years called 
for regular Saturday sailings. Later the Allan, the Anchor, and the Wilson 
Lines were established. In 1913 the Hamburg-American Line instituted a 
direct service between Hamburg and Boston. Meanwhile the building of ter- 
minal facilities on a large and superior scale was agitated. This agitation 
led to the incorporation of the Directors of the Port of Boston, and the 
erection of the impressive Commonwealth Pier at South Boston, the first 
feature of a comprehensive development of the port. Here we have a sub- 
stantial Pier twelve hundred feet long, four hundred feet wide, and capable 
of berthing the largest ships afloat. On the second floor of the middle building 
are the finest passenger accommodations of any American port. This floor 
being connected with Summer Street extension by a viaduct which crosses 
South Boston flats at an elevation, the Pier is brought within five minutes of 
the South Station. All heavy teaming of merchandise and local deliver}' of 
freight are by Northern Avenue, leading direct to the Pier, from Atlantic 
Avenue. A great Dry Dock, twelve hundred feet, capable of docking the 
largest liners and battleships, is included in the scheme of development here. 

The modern Fish Pier, adjoining Commonwealth Pier, provides extensive 
and elaborate quarters for the Boston Fish Market, the largest industry of 
its kind in America, and the second largest in the world. This Pier is twelve 
hundred feet long and three hundred feet wide. The market buildings are 
equipped with every modern appliance for the wholesome and con\'enient 
conduct of the business. The Fish Trade has maintained the leadersliij) 
among Boston and ?ilassachusetts industries with respect to extent since 



THE BOOK OP' BOSTON' 



S3 



early Colony da_\'s ; and the "enilileni of tlie Codfisli" suspended from the 
ceiling of the hall of the House of Representatives in the State House, as it 
hung years before "in the room where the House sit," in the Old State House, 
is a memorial of "the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this 
Conini(in\\e;ilth." \'ery early legislation promoted the industry. By an act 




REVERE BEACH, ONE CF BOSTON S MOST POPULAR SUMMER RESORTS 

passed in 1639, the first act "for the encouragement of the fisheries," it was 
provided that all vessels and other property employed in taking, curing, and 
transporting fish according to the usual course of fishing vo)ages, should 
be exempt from duties and public taxes for seven years: and that all fishermen 
during the season for their business, as well as shipl)uilders, should be excused 
from the performance of military duty. 

At the present time there are onh- two pi.irts in New England w here mav 
be seen any considerable numlier of steam-driven ocean shi])s. These are 
Boston and Portland. The latter city's trade being principally devoted to 
merchandise more especially so during the winter months. Jjoston on the 
contrary has man\- different lines that do both a jiassengcr and freight 
business. 

For many years Boston had but one line of ocean-going steamers and 
her service in this respect would still l)e of mediocre dimensions but for the 
enterprise displayed by the railroads and a few of Boston's leading business 
men. \\'hen it was decided to recognize Boston as one of the leading shipping 
l)orts on the Atlantic seaboard, the size of the steamers was greatly increased ; 
they were fitted more in accordance with those plying from New York, and the 
passenger accommodations were \ery much improved. All these changes 
were promptly appreciated by the travelling jiublic and a generous ])atronage 
followed. Boston's coastwise steamship service between different New Eng- 
land ports, as well as to the North and South, has kept even pace with mari- 
time trans]);irtatii^n impn j\ ements. 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 





Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 

CHAPTER V 

THE CITY'S EXPANSION 

Enlargement of the Peninsula by the Filling in of Flats, while 

Outlying Municipalities Are Absorbed — Development of the 

Back Bay Quarter — A Creditable Performance by State 

AND City — Upbuilding of the Sumptuous New \\'est End 

^^^^HILE Boston was practically confined to its Peninsula till the 
opening years of the nineteenth century, the fact is not to 
be forgotten that very early, and for considerable periods, 
it had jurisdiction over various neighboring municipalities, 
temporally annexed to it. From 1634 to January, 1738- 
1730. more than a century, "Winnisimmet," which became 
Chelsea, "Rumney Marsh," the present Revere, and "Pullen Point," now 
Winthrop, were subject to Boston's municipal control. In 1634, also, the 
General Court ordered that "Boston shall have convenient inlargement att 
Mt. Wooliston. to be set off by foure indifferent men." This was Mt. Wol- 
laston, now in Ouincy, the "Merry ]\Iount" of Thomas Morton's gay days, 
the performances at which so shocked the Pilgrims, and the Puritans when 
they arrived, and led to the worldly man's banishment. In 1636 "Noddle's 
Island," now East Boston, was "layd to Boston." Three years earlier, in 
April, 1633, this island had been granted to Samuel Maverick, gent., who 
was then occupving it, with his palisaded fort mounting "foure great guns" 
for protection against the Indians, and his "castle" inside the fort. The grant 
was in the form of a perpetual lease at a nominal rent. He was to pay yearly 
"att the General Court, to the Governour for the time being, either a fatt 
weather [wether], a fatt hogg, or xl .? in money"; and he was further en- 
joined to "give leave to Boston and Charles Towne to fetch wood contynually 
as their needs require, from the southerne pte. of s'' island." Here Maverick 
lived with his faanily and a retinue of servants — some of the latter being slaves, 
thus making him one of the earliest negro slaveholders in Massachusetts— 
for twenty-five years : dispensing a generous hospitality to his Puritan neigh- 
bors, although himself no Puritan, but a Church-of-England man — Josselyn 
wrote extravagantly of him as "the only hospitable man in the Country, giv- 
ing entertainment to all Comers gratis" — an enterprising trader in distant 
parts, with ships of his own; a man of easy disposition, yet not always at 
peace with the Puritan government on the Peninsula nor free from petty 
persecutions. For him the island came to be called "^Maverick's" rather than 
"Noddle's," which held after his day. 

Earliest of all these temporary annexations was that of the territory of 
"Muddy River," now ricli Brookline. It was taken soon after the beginning 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 85 

of Bostun, and uccupied fur grazing farms. Here the pioneer Bostonians 
built for themselves summer farm Ikjuscs, and in its sweet meadows kept their 
"swine and other cattle" tiirough the Summer seasons while "corn was on the 
ground at Boston." Thus what in after years became the fair "Cottage 
Farms" region of Brookline, favored of country seats, was made the summer 
seat of the first Bostonians. W'ln'le attached to Boston the place went for 
some time by the name of "]\luddy Ri\er Hamlet" or "Boston Commons." 
W'itli the exception of two }ears, 1635-1^)3-. when it was joined to "Xew 
Towne" — Cambridge — Muddy I\i\er continued in the jurisdiction of Boston 
till it was set off as an independent town and gi\-en tiie name of Brookline, 
in 1705. 

Xoddle's, or ^Ia\'erick'>, Island, which alone of these early "inlarg-e- 
ments" of Boston remained permanently attached, lay undeveloped for nearly 
two centuries. Through a large ])art of this long period it was an island 
farm. It was a place of sighth- hills interspersed with broad meadow and 
marsh. I'ntil the opening of the eighteen thirties it had neither streets nor 
local reg'ulations. At that time there was but (jiie dwelling-house on the island 
— the comfortable mansion of the tenant farmer; and the only other structures 
were the farm outlniildings. Its impro\-ement was begun with the purchase 
in 1831 of the whole island 1)}' a syndicate composed of a dozen capitalists, 
as a real estate speculation. The price paid for what Maverick had acquired 
through the annual payment of a fat ram, or a fat hog, or a few shillings 
in money, was eighty thousand dollars; which was considered a pretty good 
trade both by sellers and buyers. The island then embraced six hundred and 
sixty-six acres of upland and marsh, and several hundred acres of flats. In 
1833 the purchasers were incorporated as the "Fast Boston Company"; the 
old colonial name was dropped for that of East Boston ; the island was plotted 
in streets and squares, house- and building-lots : sales of lots were rapidly made 
to the substantial profit of the prom<jters, and b)- the next year the systematic 
up-building of the place was well underwa_\-. How profitable the speculation 
\\'as is indicated by these statistics: within three years the island's taxable 
valuation had increased from sixty thousand dollars to eight hundred and 
six thousand, and the population from a half-dozen persons to six hundred. 
In 1837 the terminus of the then new Eastern Railroad (chartered in 1836 
and extending to the Xew Hampshire line) was fixed here. The same year 
a great hotel — the Maverick House — was built and opcneil auspiciously, to 
flourish for a while as East Bostc.m grew in popularity; then to suffer ill for- 
tune and decay. In 1840, with the estalilishment of the Cunard service, the 
steamship docks were erected. In 1851 the Grand Junction Railroad was 
openetl. ^Meanwhile se\'eral large manufactui"ing concerns had established 
plants here, the pioneer being the Fast Boston Sugar Refinery. In the latter 
'forties shipbiuiding of high order had begun, and the island soon assumed 
large importance as a shi])building centre. It is of record that in the decade 
between 1848 and 1858 one hundred ami se\'enty \-esseIs were launched from 
East Boston vards, ninet\-nine of which exceeded one thousand tons each, 
and nine were abo\-e two thousand t(.)ns. The launchings of the handsome 
fast-sailing Boston cli|;]iers, to which we have referred in the pre\ious chapter, 
are described by ci:)ntemporaries as e\'ents, when crowds crossed to the inland 
to witness and to cheer the show. Iron shi])l)uilding- followed the decline of 
wooden-built ships in East Boston yards in the "sixties. In course of time 
this industry also declined. Later, howe\er, it was revived with that of steel 



86 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

sliipbuikling, and the manufacture of marine engines. \\'ithin tlie past half 
century the flats of the island have been filled in, increasing its area to nine- 
teen hundred and five acres. During this period additional docks have been 
provided ; the svstem of marine railways has been expanded ; and the terminal 
facilities have been generally improved. Various steamship lines now dock 
in East Boston. 

The annexation of Dorchester Xeck and Point, including the historic 
Dorchester Heights, in 1804, the first permanent taking from a neighboring 
municipality, and the setting up of this territory as South Boston, was the 
outcome of a land speculation, like the evolution of East Boston thirty years 
after. The principal promoter was a country gentleman, Joseph Woodward, 
from the town of Tewksbury, who had moved to Dorchester Neck and had 
purchased a large tract of land there. At that time this Neck was separated 
from the Boston peninsula by the cove that reached from the liarbor to Rox- 
bury and connection with it was made by a primitive ferry, or by the round- 
al)out journey through Roxbury. The shrewd Woodward saw the advantages 
of the location for development if brought into close connection with Boston 
by bridges. Accordingly he interested in a scheme of improvement Harrison 
Gray Otis and Jonathan Mason of the Boston syndicate, organized as the 
"Alount \'ernon Proprietors," then concerned in the prosperous speculation 
of the upbuilding of Beacon Hill \\'est of the State House; and with them 
two other Boston capitalists of leading — \\'illiam Tudor and Gardiner Greene. 
These Boston men also made extensive purchases on the Neck and Point, 
and then pressure for annexation began. The town of Dorchester earnestly 
opposed the project. Nevertheless it was carried through the General Court, 
and annexation was effected with the passage of the enabling act ]\Iarch 
fourth, 1804. ^Meanwhile the construction of the first bridge was undertaken 
by the Boston promoters incorporated as the "South Boston Bridge Corpora- 
tion." This was the first Dover-street Bridge. It was opened on the first 
of October, 1805, with a grand military display. At the time of the passage 
of the annexation act the district had an area of about five hundred and 
seventy acres, comprising bluffs and lowlands, and the population consisted 
of ten families. With annexation the value of the lands at once increased 
greatly, and some profitable sales were made. But the development was not 
so rapid as the projectors had anticipated. Agitation for another bridge was 
begun with the completion of the first one, but this was not obtained till 
twenty years later. It was the Federal-street Bridge, chartered in 1826 and 
opened in 1828, as a free bridge. In 1832 the old Dover-street Bridge, which 
had been a toll bridge, was sold to the city and made free. The price paid 
by the city was thirty-five hundred dollars, for what had originally cost the 
projectors fifty-six thousand dollars and had earned no dividends. After the 
opening of the second bridge the district began to grow in popularity. In 
1830 the population had increased to twenty-eight hundred. Five years 
earlier, when the city began the establishment of its reformatory institutions 
here, the population was under two thousand. By 1840 it had reached fifty- 
six hundred. The decades between 1830 and 1850 were marked by some of 
the best building. During this period many fine dwelling-houses were erected, 
and the streets and parks embellished. In 1837 an ambitious hotel — the ^Nlount 
Washington House — was erected on a sightly spot on the highest point, with 
an invitingly broad entrance from a lofty flight of steps, and piazzas com- 
manding superb harbor views. For a few happy seasons the Mount Wash- 



THE BOOK Op- BOSTON' 



87 



ingtun was a prospering poi)ular suiiiiner resort, and in the winter a favorite 
place of gay and fashionalile assemblies patronized hy Boston society. In 
1839 its career as a hostelry ended, and the great liouse ])assed to the posses- 
sion of Dr. Samuel G. Howe's beneficent estal)lishment — the Perkins Insti- 
tution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. Bv the 'fifties the hope and 
lielief that the district was to become the "court end of Boston" was fixed in 
the minds of its leading citizens. In an article in the old Boston Almanac in 
1853 urging the filling of the flats, Dr. J. A". C. Smith, afterward Mayor 
Smith of Boston ( 1854- 1856), expressed his conviction that South Boston 
\vas destined to be "the magnificent portion cf the city with respect to costly 




PUBLIC G.ARDEN VENUS AT THE BATH 



residences, fashionable society, and the influences of wealth." This prediction 
was never fulfilled. The district indeed grew steadily in favor as the years 
ad\-anced into the 'sixties and 'seventies, and many pleasant, some imposing, 
residences occupied the hills and their slopes, and the region toward the Point. 
But fashion in the 'fifties when 'Sir. Smith was writing his prediction, was 
setting strongly in the South End of the city proper, while the scheme of the 
rare Back Bay quarter was "in the air," and about to take shape. Meanwhile 
various large industries were taking root in South Boston, great foundries, 
locomotive works, lead works, boiler works, and by the 'sixties or early 
'seventies it had become the principal industrial centre of the city. There were 
at that time and afterward the great establishments of Harrison Loring, the 
City Point Iron Works, dating from 1847, from which much government 
work, naval cruisers and tugs, was turned out; the South Boston Iron Works, 
producing heavy ordinance ; the Norway Iron Works, later the steel works of 
Billings Brothers ; the Walworth Works, making heavy iron and brass cast- 
ings; the works of the W'ashburn Car-wheel Company; the Whittier Machine 
Company, making elevators among the earliest in the market ; the immense 
works of the Boston Cordage Company; great sugar refineries. The building 
of the Broadway Bridge, completed in 1S72, making the extension of the 
main thoroughfare of Broadway to Washington Street in the city pro])er. 
gave a distinct impulse to the growth of the district. It was further embel- 



S8 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

lished in the middle 'eighties with the institution of the Marine Park on The 
Point, part of the superb chain of parks encircling the city. With the filhng 
in of the flats, which was early begun and was pursued at intervals through 
a long course of years, the area of the district by 1900 had been increased 
to twenty hundred and seventeen acres, the growth that caused the establish- 
ment of the terminal piers of the New York and New England Railroad, 
before the latter's absorption in the New York, New Haven, and Hartford 
system, and foreign steamship docks, enlarged the importance of South Bos- 
ton ; while the subsequent erection of the great Commonwealth Pier rendered 
it the chief est terminal of the port of Boston. 

In 1855 \\'ashington Village was set off from Dorchester and annexed 
to Boston, becoming a part of South Boston. Thereafter, although the ques- 
tion of the city's enlargement by the taking in of whole neighboring municipal- 
ities was repeatedly agitated, no further annexations were eft'ected till the al>- 
sorption of Roxbury in 1868. Instead much was accomplished in extending the 
area by the reclamation of land from the sea. So early as 1801 a movement 
toward the making of new land on the Neck and the upbuilding of the mod- 
ern South End was started. That }-ear the selectmen reported to the March 
town meeting a plan fi:>r "la}-ing out the Neck lands," with lots on the pro- 
posed filled-in territory on either side plotted; streets drawn regularly at 
right angles; and a large circular space indicated, bounded by four streets 
with Washington Street running through its centre, — an oval grass-plot, 
ornamented with trees, — to be called "Columbia Square." The improvement, 
however, moved slowly; and it was not till fifty years later, — in 1849 — that 
it was taken up and advanced systematically to completion. Then a high 
grade for the lands was adopted, and the streets and squares laid out in 
accordance with plans drawn by two experienced engineers, E. S. Chesbrough 
and W. P. Parrott. First, the proposed Columbia Square in the plan of 
1801 was divided and transformed into the present Blackstone and Franklin 
Squares. Chester Scjuare and East Chester and \\'est Chester Parks were 
established in 1850; Union Park dates from 1851. 

At the same time the Back Bay scheme was de\'eloping. 

Up to the second decade of the nineteenth century the Back Bay was a 
beautiful sheet of water at flood tide, spreading out from the town toward 
the Brookline hills rising picturesquel}- beyond, with no bridge, dam, or cause- 
way barring the view of rural Cambridge. It then lapped the margin of the 
present Washington Street at Boston Neck, and of the "marsh at the bottom 
of the Common" which was to become the Public Garden. The entering 
wedge for the great change in its aspect was the chartering of the Boston and 
Roxbury ]\lill Corporation in 18 14, with authority to build a dam from 
Charles Street in Boston to the upland at Sewall Point, so called, in Brook- 
line. The purpose of this undertaking- was two-fold : the utilization of the 
water-power of the great basin made by the dams thrown across it, and the 
use of these dams as causeways, or roadway's, for communication between 
Boston and Roxbury, and the Western suburbs. Three dams were built: the 
Mill-Dam extending from Beacon Street below Charles to Brighton, pro- 
jected in 1818, and opened in 1821, the event being celebrated Ijy the passage 
of a cavalcade of citizens, under the direction of Gen. William H. Sumner, 
entering the town over the dam, and being formally received on the Boston 
side by the people (reported in the newspapers of the day in a paragraph only 



90 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

of a few lines) ; a cross dam; and the causeway to Brookline, now Brookline 
Avenue. These dams were to serve as the nucleus for the consolidation of 
the intervening mass. In 1824 the business of the Roxbury Mill Corporation 
was divided, when the Boston Water Power Company was incorporated, to 
use the water power. In 1831 the incorporation of the Boston and Worcester 
and the Boston and Providence Railroad Companies with lines across the 
Back Bav, and the concession to riparian owners of the right to fill their flats, 
so encroached upon the water-power as to hasten the conversion of the com- 
pany into a land company. In 1832 the Water Power Company took pos- 
session of the mills and water-power and the territory South of the Mill-Dam, 
while the Mill Corporation retained the roads and the territory North of the 
Mill-Dam. A large part of the city sewage then flowing into the basin also- 
rendered its filling necessary on sanitary grounds. Soon arose an outcry 
against this "Back Bay nuisance," which only ceased with the last steps for 
its abatement taken by the adoption of the "Back Bay Park Project," in con- 
nection with the Public Parks system instituted in the mid 'seventies. The 
Commonwealth had the right to the flats below the line of riparian owner- 
ship, and in 1848 the General Court passed a resolve appointing fi\'e com- 
missioners to deal with the subject of creating new lands here. In 1852 a 
comprehensive plan was reported by a second state commission. The terri- 
tory North of the Mill-Dam was to be filled by the Mill Corporation; the 
Commonwealth took possession of that North of an East and West line drawn 
from near the present Park Square Theatre in Park Square: and the Water 
Power Company, all of the territory South of that line. 

The plan of the "Back Bay Impro\-ement" that followed was the design 
of Arthur Gilman, one of the eminent architects of the country in his day, 
and withal a famous wit and boii-z'izvut. He was also the architect of the 
first buildings erected on these "New Lands" — the line of beautiful dwelling- 
houses designed in harmony along Arlington Street opposite the Public Gar- 
den, with the Arlington Street Church at the Boylston-Street corner. The 
work of filling was begun in 1857. It progressed slowly through the Civil 
War i)eriod ; then was revived energetically, and pursued without interruption 
till its completion in the late "eighties. At the lieginning of the filling the 
Commonwealth owned of the whole territory, four million, se\'en hundred 
and twentv-three thousand, eight hundred and fifty-six square feet, or one 
hundred and eight, and forty-four hundredths acres. Of this when filled, 
two million, twenty-seven thousand, eighty-three, and a sixtieth feet were 
devoted to streets and passageways ; one hundred thousand eight hundred and 
ninetv-eight feet were given to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 
fortv-three thousand, eight hundred and forty to the Boston Society of 
Natural History; fifteen thousand five hundred and sixty-eight to the Massa- 
chusetts Normal Art School ; six hundred and ninety-three to Trinity Church % 
and two hundred and thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy-seven to 
the City of Boston. The remainder, two million, three hundred and sixteen 
thousand, seven hundred and sixty-nine, and a fortieth feet, was sold in the 
market for cash; and these sales, beginning in 1857 and ending in 1886, when 
the last parcel was disposed of, brought five million, eighty-one thousand,, 
eight hundred and twenty-nine dollars and forty-two cents. The cost to the 
Commonwealth of filling and improving the territory w^as one million, six hun- 
dred and twenty-seven thousand, six hundred and thirty-two dollars; the 
cash value of the lands given to the Citv and to institutions was estimated at 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



91 



eight lumdred and tliirt_\-tlirec tliousaiid fnur luiiiilred and tliirty-nine dullars; 
and the total protit t(.) the State troni the enterprise was t\)nr miUinn, two hun- 
dred and seventy-live thmisand, six hundred and forty-four dullars, and 
seventy-three cents. The a\erage price per foot of all the P)ack I'ay lands sold 
by the Conmiimwealth was over $2.00. The avails of the sales were applied to 
educational i)urposes and to the endowment of sex'eral of the sinking" funds of 
the State. The sales of lots were made in small parcels by auction, at inter- 
vals of six months or a }'ear, beginning in the "sixties, Xewell A. Thompson 




ONE OF THE PICTURESQUE VIEWS OF THE LAKE IN THE PUBLIC GARDEN 



the auctioneer. These sales were held in the Merchants Exchange, and were 
notable affairs, drawing leading men of means, with a sprinkling of specula- 
tions. I recall with pleasant memories the dignified leadership of Mr. Thomp- 
son on these occasions. He was an aristocrat among auctioneers; precise of 
diction, Chesterfieldian of manner. He gave to these sales an air of distinction, 
and conducted himself as a courteous gentleman among gentlemen, engaged 
in an altogether gentlemanly transaction. 

The upbuilding of the quarter into the sumptuous "Xew West End" 
was broad and stately from the beginning. In the arrangement of streets 
and avenues beautv and convenience alike were considered. The streets 
were to run ]>arallel to or at right angles with Beacon Street. The cross 
streets, beginning witli Arlington, were to be named in alphabetical order. 



92 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



and a trisyllabic alternating with a dissyllabic word — as Arlington, Berkeley, 
Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester, Hereford. Of those 
running east ami west, — Marlliorough, Commonwealth Avenue, Newbury, 
Boylston, and below Copley Square Huntington Avenue, — Commonwealth 
A\enue with its noble tree-lined parkway, broken here and there with statues 
of public men, is the broadest and grandest. The demnnder of statistics is 
told that it is two hundred feet wide and two hundred and forty feet from 
house to house. Huntington Avenue, laid out in 1872, measures one hundred 
feet in width. The others are each sixty feet, the houses set back twenty-two 
feet : all impressive figures to the old Bostonian most familiar with the narrow 
streets of Old Boston. In its domestic architecture, some of this rich, all 
interesting, even the most eccentric, appear examples of the work of the fore- 
most Boston architects of the 'sixties and succeeding decades. 

Of the striking display of elaborate architecture the beginnings were mod- 
est. The earliest buildings, those of the Natural History Society and the 
Institute of Technology — the Rogers Building — were notable for their dig- 
nified character. W. G. Preston was the architect of both. Of the churches, 
Arlington Street, the first to be erected here, as we have said, in its exterior 
design recalls the old London Wren churches. The steeple was the first in 
Boston to be constructed entirely of stone. The Emmanuel Church, on 
Newbury Street, was designed by A. R. Estey; the Gothic Central Church, 
Berkeley Street, by R. 'M. Upjohn; the First Church, INIarlborough Street, 
by Ware and \'an I'.runt. These were built between the years 1862 and 1868. 
Within the next decade were completed the Brattle-Square Church — now the 
First Baptist — designed by H. H. Richardson; the Second Church, on Copley 
Square (since removed to make way for a Inisiness structure: the present 
Second Church being on Beacon Street close to the Brookline line) by N. J. 
Bradlee; the New Old South, by Cummings and Sears; Trinity, Copley 
Square, by H. H. Richardson, with Gambrill of New York; the Hotel Bruns- 
wick, by Peabody and Stearns : the Hotel X^endome, by J. F. Ober and George 
D. Rand ; and the main secticm of the Art Museum, which stood where is now 
the Coi)ley-Plaza Hotel, and was removed after the erection of the present 
Museum of Fine Arts, on Huntington Avenue, 1907-1909, by Sturgis and 
Brigham. Later noteworthy ^vork was that of William R. Emerson in the 
Boston Art Club, 1882, the first Back Bay Club-house designed especially for 
club uses, but the second to be established in this quarter, the St. Botolph, 
occu]5ying the dwelling of the late Henr}- P. Kidder, No. 2 Newbury Street, 
having been the first; George T. Meacham, in the new Hollis-Street Church, 
1884, now the South Congregational; IMcKim, Mead and White in the Algon- 
quin Club-house, on Commonwealth Avenue, 1886; John Sturgis, in the 
Athletic Club-house, 1888; W. G. Preston, in the Charitable Mechanic Ex- 
hibition building, 1881 ; and McKim, Mead and White in the monumental 
Boston Public Library building. 

The annexations of Dorchester in 1870, of Chariest own. Brighten, and 
West Roxbury by one act in 1874; and of Hyde Park in 1912, were 
the last that largely increased the area of the City. By the filling 
in of the great coves, and the reclamation of the extensive marshes and 
fiats of the peninsula, the original area of sex'en hundred and eighty-three 
acres has been exjianded to eighteen hundred and one acres; and where the 
peninsula was the narrowest it is now the widest. With this expansion 



TIIF. BOOK OF BOSTON' 93 

and the additional territnry ac(nnrt'il li_\- tlie develcipnient of East Boston antl 
South Boston, and tlie al)siir])ti(in of the several adjoining cities and towns, 
the area of the city has become more than thirty times as large as that of the 
peninsula upon which Boston was built. The City's bounds today embrace 
tliirtv thousand two hundred and ninety-fi\'e acres, or forty-seven and thirty- 
four hundredths square miles. Its extreme length from North to South is 
thirteen miles, its extreme width from East to West nine miles. 

Continuous! V from the davs of its UKJSt early settlement Boston has 
alwavs occupied a prominent ])lace in the connnercial and financial world. Its 
founders had hardly made themselves homes when they began to cast their 
far reaching glances around for various opportunities t<:> trade. These first 
ventures were made in commerce by boat with the neighboring settlements 
of I'lvmouth. Then, as time advanced, Cape Cod was rounded, and commercial 
intercourse was established, first with the English Colonists settled in \'ir- 
einia, and afterwards with the Dutch at New Amsterdam, at the mouth of 
the Hudson River, with the Swedes in Delaware and New Jersey, and with 
the English Colonists of Maryland. The French, laying claim to all of the 
mainland of the continent east of the Penobscot River, trade relations were 
gradually established with these French colonists, and in this way the first 
basis of what was later on to Ijeconie a great business was finally laid down, 
and from these humble beginnings Boston has grown to the present proud 
position that she occupies in the financial and commercial world of the present 
day. 

Boston has capital placed in thriving industries throughout the United 
States. Her copper interests are among the largest and best in .\merica. Her 
lumljer business has been immense. Her cotton mills are sprinkled all through 
New England and the ."^outh and Southwest. She has much wealth in the 
steel and iron industry, although her Ijusiness men no longer dominate in that 
line. In the principal cities of the cotnitrv Boston monev is extensively in- 
vested in real estate. Some of the largest and handsomest lousiness structures 
of the country are owned by Boston real estate trusts and associations. 
Boston capital was a pioneer in the development of electricity as a motive and 
lighting power, and her capitalists ha\e milli(ins employed in street railways 
and lighting j)lants aliout the country. 

The City's residential sections equal any in America and the handsome 
hi nies on Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon and Marlborough Streets, compare 
with those in any of the exclusive localities of other cities where wealth and 
culture congregate. 

Brookline, which is given over to homes of larger and more ])retentious 
character, is one of the most beautiful suburbs in the United States. The 
onward progress of the city is somewhat crowding this, and other immediately 
near h(jme localities, and business houses and commercial plants have begun to 
fringe their edges; but there shoukl be no fear of overcrowding or destruction 
of the natural Ijeauties of the suburbs, and Boston can rest in the assurance 
that she will always be beautiful, both naturally and architecturally, and always 
l)e able to amply house her jjopulation. 

There is no city in the entire country better equipjied for expansion than 
Boston. Unlike most cities it has a vast contiguous territorv that would 
provide beautiful and picturescjue sites for a population running into the 
niilliims, and these localities are easy of access. The city's close proximity 
to the sea insures cooling and healthful breezes to the outlying home sections. 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 





Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 

CHAPTER VI 

HOW BOSTON TRANSPORTS 
ITS CITIZENS 

Railroad Facilities of the Past, Present, and Future — Passing of 

THE Old Stations and the Coming of the Combined Terminals 

— The Old Boston and Providence Station of Striking 

Architecture — Rapid Transit and the Birth of 

THE Subway System 

*^.^/^\^ IFTY years ago Boston was the centre of a system of rail- 
roads composed of eight distinct Hnes, radiating from tlie 
City througliout New England and connecting the great 
trunk lines of the country North and West with this port ; 
and each having a Boston station of its own. These eight 
distinct roads in 1865 included the pioneer railways in Amer- 
ica. They were: the Boston and Lowell, chartered in 1830; the Boston and 
Providence, 1831; the Boston and Worcester, 1831, and the Western, 1833, 
the latter controlled by the W^orcester. the two to be actually consolidated as 
the Boston and Albany in 1869: the Eastern, 1836: the Boston and Maine, 
1842; the Fitchburg, 1842; the Old Colony, 1844: the New York, Hartford 
and Erie, 1863, composed of a number of small local roads, the earliest 
chartered in 1833, to be transformed into the New York and New England, 
in 1873. 

The Boston and Worcester was the first of all to be opened for traffic, 
and the first to employ the lijcomoti\e engine. Thus it had the distinction of 
being the first steam railroad operated by steam in New England. The locomo- 
tive engine was an English-lniilt one, and was first set in motion in the latter 
part of 1834, when the line had been completed so far as Newton, nine or ten 
miles out from Boston; l)ut the opening of the line to that point was delayed 
till April, 1S35, the companv lieing obliged to await the arrival of an engine- 
driver imported from England to take charge of the English machine. The 
first locomotives on the other roads were imported from England, and the 
engineers to run them. But pretty soon American locomotive works were 
established. During the very first year of the operation of the Worcester 
road an American-built locomotive was put on its tracks and performed 
efficient service. The Boston and Lowell and the Boston and Providence 
were the first to be opened throughout, — in June, 1835; while the ^^'orcester 
was opened throughout only a few weeks later. — on the fourth of July, 1835. 
The latter event was duly celebrated on the sixth of July, with a dinner and 
speeches, after the Boston fashion. Only si.x years from the opening of the 
Worcester throughout, or in 1841, the Western was opened from Worcester 
to the Connecticut River; on the fourth of Octo!)er that \-ear, the Connecticut 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 95 

Bridge haviiit;- Iieen finislied nn the tnurth of July, tlie road was completed 
to the New York boundary : and mi the twenty-first of December the con- 
necting link in New York state to Alljany was completed and trains were run 
over it, thus opening a direct rail line from Boston to Albany. This momen- 
tous event was commemorated in the following spring, in March, 1842, by a 
meeting of the executive officers of the states of Massachusetts and New 
York, and other prominent men of the time, at Springfield, with the customary 
banquet and congratulatory s])eeches. One toast at the banquet has gone inti > 
history. It was offered by General Root of New York : "The happy union 
of the sturgeon and the codfish ; may their joyous nuptials efface the melan- 
choly recollection of the departure of the Connecticut-River salmon." 

While the railroad in America was a Boston idea, originating in Boston, 
and the "Father of the American Railroad" was a Boston editor, other com- 
munities picked up the idea, and the railroail was advanced by them while 
Boston was debating the subject, and wrestling with a State Legislature 
which saw, or the majority saw, only a \vild, impractical and dangerous 
scheme. Thus in South Carolina an imn railway had been Iniilt before the 
Boston and Lowell Company was fairlx' organized; while in New \'()rk in 
1825, the vear that the initial Boston railway scheme was reluctantly chartered, 
a part of the present New York Central Railroad was incoriiorated. and in 
August, 183 1, a little more than a month after the grant of the charter of 
the Boston and Worcester, that part was completed and a trial trip made over 
it with a steam locomoti\e. 

The pioneer American undertaking, howe\'er, and the pattern in part, 
small and simple as it was, of the earliest American roads, was a Boston 
institution and established liy Boston men. This was the Granite Railway, 
as it was called, conceived in 1824, by Gridley Bryant, a Boston builder by 
trade and a self-educated civil engineer, to convey stone for the building of 
the Bunker-Hill Monument from a quarry in Ouincy : chartered the next year 
after much hesitation by a doubting Legislature : in successful operation in 
the autumn of that year: and thereafter in service for a period of forty years. 
Bryant's own account of his enterprise, given long after the completion of 
the monument, well illustrates the difficulties encountered b\- the promoters 
of this re\'oIutionary method of transportation. Pre\'jous to the la^-ing of 
the cornerstone of the monument (that memorable event of June seventeen. 
1823. when Lafayette laid the stone under the direction of the ALassachu- 
setts Grand Lodge of ]\Iasons, and Weljster was the orator of the occasion), 
Bryant had purchased a stone quarry in Ouincy, the funds being furnished 
by Dr. John L". Warren, the brother (jf Gen. Josej)!! Warren who fell in the 
battle, for the express purpose of procuring the granite for constructing the 
monument. The quarry was nearly four miles from water-carriage. This 
suggested to him the idea of a railroad. He bad read accounts of the experi- 
menting in England, quite likely in Nathati Hale's Daily Ach'crtiscr, for the 
"Father of the .\merican Railroad" was careful to publish in his paper all 
available material which might aid in the educaticmal campaign he was 
at that time pursuing. The Manchester and Liverpool Railroad was then 
in contemplation, but was not begun until the spring following^. "Accord- 
ingly," Bryant's narrative proceeds, "in the fall of 1825 I consulted Thomas 
H. Perkins, William Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Isaac P. Davis, and David 
Moody, all of Boston, in reference to it. These gentlemen thought the project 
visionary and chimerical; but, being anxious to aid the Bunker-Hill Monu- 



96 THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 

ment. consented that I might see what could be done. I awaited the meeting 
of our Legislature, in the Winter of 1825-1826, and after every delay and 
obstruction that could be thrown in the way, I finally obtained a charter, 
although there was great opposition in the House. The question was asked, 
'What do we know about railroads? Who ever heard of such a thing? Is 
it right to take people's land for a project that no one knows anything about? 
We have corporations enough already.' Such and similar objections were 
made, and various restrictions were imposed; but it finally passed by a small 
majority only. Unfavorable as the charter was, it was admitted that it was 
obtained by luy exertions; but it was owing to the numificence and public 
spirit of Col. T. H. Perkins that we were indebted for the whole enterprise. 
None of tlie first-named gentlemen ever paid anj- assessment, and the whole 
stock finally fell into the hands of Colonel Perkins. I surveyed several routes 
from the quarry purchased (called the Bunker Hill Quarry) to the nearest 
tide- water; and finally the present location was determined upon. I com- 
menced the work on the first day of April, 1826, and on the seventh day of 
October following the first train of cars passed over the whole length of the 
road." 

The road was operated by horse power. The really memorable thing 
about it, as Charles Francis Adams remarked in his history of "The Canal 
and Railroad Enterprise of Boston," was Bryant's ingenuity in devising the 
appliances necessary to its successful operation. These included, Mr. Adams 
enumerates, the switch, the portable derrick, the turn-table, and the movable 
truck for the eight-wheel railroad car, all of which contrivances subsequently 
passed into general use. The movable truck having in 1S34 been patented 
by other p:irties, became a subject of litigation which occupied the courts for 
five years and cost, it is said, some two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
The claim of Bryant as its inventor, Mr. Adams states, was sustained ; but 
he had no legal claim to any royalty in its use, and never received anything 
for it. He died quite poor in 1867. The Granite Railway including its 
branches was four miles in length, and cost fifty thousand dollars. It was 
constructed of wooden rails, protected by strap-iron plates three inches wide 
and a quarter of an inch thick, and laid on stone sleepers eight feet apart. 
After its forty years of service and it had been for a while in disuse, its 
franchise was bought by the Old Colony Railroad; then the primitive struc- 
ture was demolished and a modern railway was built on the right of way 
which was opened for traffic in October, 1871. And Mr. Adams remarks a 
"certain historical fitness in the fact that, through the incorporation of the 
Granite Railway into the Old Colony, the line which connects Plymouth with 
Boston has become the original railroad line in America." 

The pioneer Boston passenger railroads also introduced a contrivance or 
two that came into general use. Although their engineers began \\ith stone 
sleepers as the English did, they were the first to substitute ties of wood, and 
the English engineers soon followed their example. Nathan Hale in a sketch 
of the Massachusetts Railroad System written in 1851, at the time of the 
three-days "Railroad Jubilee" in Boston, September seventeen to nineteen, 
to celebrate the opening of railroad communication between Boston and 
Canada, and the West, and the establishment of an American line of steam- 
ships between Boston and Liverpool, gave warm praise to the engineers 
under whose direction these roads were constructed. "They had never seen 
the English works," wrote Mr. Hale, "and although they adopted for the most 




PATRICK FRANCIS SULLIVAN 

President ani director of several street railways, electric and 
companies, banks and other financial institutions 



98 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

part the general princii)les on which tliose roads were constructed, they did 
not bhndly copy from them, but modified their respective works in many par- 
ticulars, to adapt them to their difference of situation arising from differences 
of locality, as well as of the amount of population and business." The rails, 
like the locomotives, were at first imported from England, but they were in 
most cases rolled to a pattern prescribed from this country, often deviating 
from the form in general use in England. 

The adoption of the railroad followed a succession of movements for the 
establishment of State canals from Boston Westward to offset the facilities 
of such comnninication from other sections of New England which were cur- 
tailing Boston's inland trade and her foreign commerce, to the benefit of New 
York. Eastern Massachusetts men had been the first to institute the canal 
system, on any considerable scale, in America, in the construction of the 
Middlesex Canal, which connected the upper waters of the Merrimac River 
at East Chelmsford (which became Lowell in 1824) with Boston Harbor. 
Authorized in 1793, and opened for traffic in 1803, this canal was still in the 
latter 'twenties, and 'thirties, of much ci^mmercial use ; in fact it continued 
in operation until Ji-ine, 1853. Boston capital had also been expended in the 
construction of locks for fostering a limited traffic by flat boats on the Con- 
necticut and Merrimac Rivers, the lines of boat navigation thus established 
extending some distance into New Hampshire. But, as Mr. Hale observed, 
these modest improvements disappointed public expectation in the moderate 
degree of accommodation which they afforded as well as the public spirited 
proprietors in the hope of an income on their investments in them. In the 
meantime those improvements elsewhere which were adverse to Boston's 
commercial interests developed. The construction of the Blackstone Canal, 
leading from Worcester to Providence, Rhode Island, opened a water con- 
nection between New York and the "Heart of the Commonwealth," while 
no such communication existed between Worcester and Boston. Indeed so 
early as 1791, before the JNIiddlesex Canal was begun, a route for a canal to 
connect Boston with W^orcester was surveyed by General Harry Knox, of 
Revolutionary fame, but the project fell through. A similar diversion of 
the trade of the Connecticut Valle}' was effected by the opening of a canal 
from Northampton to New Haven. The Western part of the State had be- 
come so estranged for all commercial objects from Eastern Massachusetts 
that, Mr. Hale averred, no trader from Berkshire County had visited Boston 
for many years. The same causes were extending the relations of New 
York with Vermont and New Hampshire at the expense of Boston. At the 
same time the steamers of New York 1)\- their daily and regular voyages to 
Providence, to the Connecticut River, to New Haven, and to those ports 
of the Hudson which lay near the Western border of Massachusetts united 
half the State more intimate!}- with New York than with Boston. 

The opening of the Erie Canal in October, 1825, with Go\-ernor De Witt 
Clinton's triumphal progress in a State barge from Lake Ontario to the mouth 
of the Hudson, and his symbolizing the union of the two by mingling their 
w^aters, brought matters to a crisis in Eastern Massachusetts and Boston. 
While the Erie Canal was under construction far-seeing Boston men were 
again planning a canal into Worcester county, similar to the Middlesex 
Canal, and possibly to the Connecticut River; while a few were boldly agi- 
tating a canal direct to the Hudson. Early in this year of 1825 the canal 
advocates had succeeded in getting through the General Court a resolve pro- 





■ 


I 




] 


1 


i^ 


-^- ^^^^^^^^^1 


1 


■1 %w% 


1 ^^^i^'^^t- 


4 



HARRY P. NAWN 



President of the Hugh Xawn Contracting Co., and Director of the Federal 

Trust Co., the National Rockland Bank of Roxbury 

and the East Taunton Street Railway. 



100 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

viding for a commission "to ascertain the practicability of making a canal 
from Boston Harbor to Connecticut River," and "of extending the same to 
some point on the Hudson River in the State of New York in the vicinity of 
the junction of the Erie Canal with that River." The report of this com- 
mission, a bulky document, was presented to the Legislature of January, 
1826, by Governor Lincoln. Surveys had been made by Col. Loammi Bald- 
win, second, son of Col. Loammi Baldwin, the engineer of the Middlesex 
Canal. — and the discoverer, while surveying the Middlesex, of the fruit on an 
apple tree, which, cultivated by him, became the famous Baldwin apple. The 
surveys were in two parts, one covering a route from Boston to the Con- 
necticut Ri\er, the other from the Connecticut to the Hudson. The latter 
including the tunnelling of the Hoosac Movmtain. Thus the idea of the 
Hoosac Tunnel, which fifty years after was realized for the railroad, origin- 
ated for a canal. The commission proposed the construction at once of only 
the first part of the scheme — to the Connecticut — and the amount required 
for this was placed at three million dollars, the interest upon which it was 
advised, should be raised from several named sources, one of them a State 
Lottery. In suj^port of the Lottery, against which as gambling a State law 
had been secured, the ct jmmission ventured a frank and ingenuous argument : 
"Having been arranged under the generic term gaiubling an effort has been 
made, from the purest and best motives, to discountenance and suppress lot- 
teries; but it now becomes a serious question of investigation whether too 
harsh an epithet has not been gi\en to one of the ordinary modes of raising 
funds under the sanction of the highest legislative enactments, both in Europe 
and this country, for literary, eleemosynary, and various other great and 
excellent purposes. If it has been proved that the legal countenance which 
this State has formerly given still includes a disregard of existing statutes, 
is it not more politic so to amend them as shall secure to the Commonwealth 
those benefits which are now derived by other states? It may be said, with 
sufiicient plausibility, that if an unabatable evil does exist let it be converted 
to the best possible purposes. All constructive crimes, including such as come 
within the antiquated systems of sumptuary jurisprudence, are not deemed 
by the people as immoral, per sc; and it is an axiom in ethics as well as legis- 
lation, that doubtful or imaginary offenses should not hastily be made penal." 
The commission put the amount annually expended in the State for the pur- 
chase of lctter\' tickets, desjjite the pr(ihil)iti)r\- law, at over two hundretl and 
fifty thousand dollars. 

The Legislature took no action on the commissioners' report, or on the 
canal question beyond tabling a resolve authorizing further surveys. Its 
attention had now been sliarply turned from canals to railroads, by reports 
in the jniblic prints of the discovery in England of the adaptation of the rail- 
road to the ])urposes of pul^lic travel and the trans]iortation of merchandise, 
entitled to take precedence of canal transportation : and particularly by the 
practical advocacy of Bryant's Granite Railway scheme now brought up for 
incorporation. With the granting of Bryant's charter a new railroad party 
arose. The Massachusetts Canal project was doomed. In the next General 
Court the advocates of railroads were in the majority in the House, and the 
Senate while conservative was interested in the novel thing-. A petition 
was now presented by the public-spirited Col. Thomas Handasyd Perkins, the 
financier of Bryant's road, and a few other citizens of standing, mostly Bos- 
ton men, praying that surveys be made for a railway from Boston through 



TIIK ROOK OP' BOSTON 



101 




FLOATING BRIDGE ON BAY STATE STREET RAILWAY 
SALEM SHORT LINE 



t'j tlic lluilsoii. In 
ci.nipIiancL- with this 
petitiiiii an nnlt-r prn- 
vidiiii;' tor a jiiint 
coiiiniittee to sit dnrint^ 
the recess for consid- 
i. ration of the "jiracti- 
cahihtx' and expechencv 
of c(_)nstrncting such a 
rail\va\," was jiassed hv 
the House. The con- 
servati\e Senate non- 
concurred, wliereupoii 
the measure was so 
amended as to provide 
for a committee of the House alone. This committee was composed 
of two Boston members. Dr. Al)ner Phelps — its chairman — and George 
\\'. Adams, a son of President John Ouincy Adams, and a \\'orcester 
member, Emor_\- Washlmrn, afterward Governor. In January, 1S27, this 
committee reported a scheme of a railroad to be operated liy horse power, 
with ]iatlis on either side of the tracks for the dri\ers; and recommended 
resolves for the appointment of a board of commissioners to cause surveys 
to be made of the most practical routes from Boston to the Hudson at or 
near Albany. Thus the first step toward the new \-enture was taken. 

^^'ith the appointment of the Phelps committee, the railroad question 
as Charles bVancis Adams characterized it, passed into its first or educational 
stage, tij last four }-ears. Tiie great part of the public recti\ed the idea with 
surprising increihib'ty. Xathan Hale remarked the pertinacit\' "worthy of 
a better cause" with whicli the efforts of the advocates of the iniiM-oveiuent 




HAVMARKET SQUARE. THE CITY KLLIEF STATION TO THE LEFT 



102 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

to produce a general conviction of its practicability was resisted. While tliere 
were indeed, he said, very early converts to the behef of its efficacy, that 
beHef was slowly embraced by the class of persons who were possessed of the 
means of testing their convictions by actual experiment on a scale broad enough 
to give it general confidence. It was the learned Boston Courier, then under 
the editorship of the distinguished Boston journalist, Joseph T. Buckingham, 
whicii received the Phelps committee's report with this often quoted delicious 
bit of editorial wisdom : 

"Alcibiades, or some other great man of antiquity, it is said, cut off his dog's tail 
that quidnuncs might not become extinct from want of excitement. Some such 
notion we doubt not moved one or two of our natural and experimental philosophers 
to get up the project of a railroad from Boston to Albany, — a project which every 
one knows, who knows the simplest rule in arithmetic, to be impracticable, but at 
an expense little less than the market value of the whole territory of Massachusetts; 
and which, if practicable, every person of common-sense knows would be as useless 
as a railroad from Boston to the moon." 

The Legislature of 1827 at its January session ignored the Phelps com- 
mittee's recommendations. But Ijefore prorogation an act was passed creat- 
ing a "Board of Internal Improvements," of three members, with authority 
to emplov an engineer, to examine routes for canals and railways generally. 
Subsequently this board was directed to survey a railway route from Boston 
to the Rhode Island line, and a canal route from Boston to the Blackstone. 
At tlie next June session numerous petitions on the raih-oad question, now 
headed by Josiah Quincy, mayor of Boston, poured in. In response to these, 
resolves were at length passed providing for the appointment of two com- 
missioners and an engineer definitely instructed to report surveys, plans, and 
estimates for a railroad from Boston to the Hudson on the best practical 
route. Meanwhile the "Board of Internal Improvements" had made a report 
only with respect to a local canal. The commission of two reported at the 
January session of 1828 the results of its engineer's surveys, and while it 
recommended a road to be operated only by horse power, it ventured, cau- 
tiously, a discussion of the possibilities of the movable engine. The com- 
mittee to whom this report was referred in regular order, although not fully 
endorsing the railroad idea agreed that the question of railroad construction 
had "assumed a new and greater influence." The canal idea was now 
definitely dismissed. 

The next and the longest step was taken with the passage in Alarch of 
an act authorizing the appointment of a "Board of Directors of Internal Im- 
provements" consisting of twelve citizens, and the appropriation of a fund to 
meet the expense of making various surveys and plans of railroads. Of this 
board, chosen by the Legislature, Governor Lincoln was first named ; but 
Nathan Hale, whose services as a railroad educator had already been great, 
was the real head. Subsequently he Ijecame the president of the company 
which built the first Boston road opened for traffic — the Boston and \\^orces- 
ter. Under the direction of this board surveys were made of routes from 
Boston to the Hudson from which the most desirable might be selected, and 
of three entire routes from Boston to Providence; and reports thereon were 
submitted in the Winter of 1829 with the recommendation that a commence- 
ment of railroads be undertaken on both these lines, at the cost of the State. 
This report, which was the work of ^Ir. Hale, was an elaborate document in 
which the whole subject was clearly and broadly discussed. The construction 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



105 



of railways in wliicii Ih-yant's methods were Inllowed, was recommended. 
The space lietween the rails was to lie graded for a horse-path. While the 
motive-power was to be the horse, the futnre — the near future possibilities 
of steam were duly recognized. The success of the locomotive engine had 
not \et been fully established in England. The report excited wide attention 
and debate. But the Legislature of 1829 adjourned without taking any 
definite action ujxin it. Before the General Court of 1830 met George 
Stephenson's "Rncket" iierfdrmance had taken ])lace in Englanil. Air. Hale 
spread before the ]!eopIe in his paper e\•er^■ detail of the famous Rainhill trials 
near Liverpool. Thus the press came into action and practical service. The 
result was immediate. "All tlie sluw educational work of the six preceding 
years seemed to bear fruit in a day, — not in the Legislature. Init in the market- 
place," wrote Air. Adams. "Individual enterprise at last came to the front, 
and when the Legislature met in Jainiar_\-, 1830. petitions for the incorporation 
of private railroad companies were presented to it." In November the great 
ceremony of the Alanchester and Liverpool opening took place, and Air. Hale 
took care to lay before the readers of his Daily Adz'crtiscr a full account of it. 
The granting of a tentative charter to one of these petitioning groups — 
the promoters of the Boston and Lowell — marked this eventful year. In 
the summer season of the ne.xt Legislature — 183 1 — the incorporation of the 
Boston and Providence and the Boston and Worcester followed, and the 
Lowell's charter was amended and strengthened. Now, with these three 
Boston roafis, the system wliicli was to make Boston a future railroad centre 

was fairly inaugurated. These 
charters, however, were 
grantetl with some misgiving, 
while the jjijlicv nf undertaking 
the construction of railroads 
on the pu1)lic account continued 
to be pressed. At subsequent 
sessions for a year or two 
longer this issue was strongly 
jjressed, mainlv thriiugh Bos- 
ton influences. But the coun- 
try members strjod stolidly 
against the involvement of 
public moneys in any such 
schemes. It was the old story 
of the alignment of the coun- 
tr\' members against the "Bos- 
tiin clik." In this particular 
it was fortunate for it kept 
the State out of the rail- 
road business. The Legisla- 
ture decided not only to make 
appropriation of public 
m o n e y for railroad con- 
struction, but to cooperate, through subscription of stock on public account 
or other pecuniary aid, with private corporations established, or to be estab- 
lished, for the purpose. The first three companies were organized by the 
subscription of the required amount of capital, conditionally, — or at least 




WASHINGTON STREET TODAY 
OLD SOUTH CHURCH PROMINENTLY I.N THE CENTER 



104 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

definitely so expressed in the case of the Boston and Worcester, — with the 
reservation of the right of the subscribers to withdraw upon receiving the 
report of definitive surveys and estimates. 

The Boston and Lowell was the first to be organized, as I have already 
remarked, and to open books of subscription. The n:oving spirits in its 
establishment were Patrick T. Jackson and Kirk Boott, Boston leaders in 
the establishment of Lowell, and the stock was mainly taken by those inter- 
ested in the new Lowell manufactures. It was in shares of five hundred 
dollars each. Of the original subscribers. Mr. Jackson was a subscriber for 
one hundred and twenty-four shares; Edwin Munroe (not a Lowell manu- 
facturer, but a miller, of Prospect Hill, Somerville, then part of Charlestown, 
my maternal grandfather) for one hundred shares ; John Lowell, ninety- 
four, George W. Lyman, seventy-five; W^illiam Appleton, fifty. The en- 
gineer of the construction of the road was George W. Whistler, father of the 
more celebrated artist Whistler, who lived so much of his life abroad and in 
London as sometimes to forget his American birth. The stock of the Boston 
and Worcester was taken chiefly not by capitalists, but, as Mr. Hale stated, 
by men of business desirous of promoting a Western line through to the 
Hudson. ^Vith a satisfactory report to the subscribers as to the surveys and 
estimates, in 1832, the conditional subscriptions to the stock were made abso- 
lute. The Worcester's charter was the first which contained the express grant 
of authority to transport persons and merchandise on account of the cor- 
poration, and to purchase and hold locomoti\'e engines and cars. In the 
Providence Compan}- a great part of the stock was taken originally by New 
York capitalists, since it was to make connection with the steamboat lines to 
New York. 

These three pioneer railroads in New England remained the only works 
of the kind (with the exception of the Norwich and Worcester begun in 1835) 
till their success had been tested by their actual use. Meanwhile the old 
system of internal communication was fostered in the hope of continuing in 
successful competition with the new. The old system chiefly consisted of 
numerous lines of stage-coaches radiating from Boston, and l)aggage- wagons 
cmpb_n-ing some thousands of fine hijrses. The stage-coaches were capable of 
]:)erforming a journey of one hundred miles a day by eighteen hours' tra\'el; 
and the great goods-wagons of making the round trip of a hundred miles and 
back with four or five tons of merchandise once in a fortnight. 

The seven pioneer and distinct railroails, diverging from Boston irregu- 
larly to all points of the compass, and the main trunks upon which were en- 
grafted all the railroads in the State, continued entirely independent of one 
another for nearly half a century. And each had a distinct jiassenger station 
for a decade or so longer. Tiie stations fifty years ago were excellent build- 
ings, one or two of them architecturally ambitious, of which the town was 
reasonably proud. The \\'orcester and Western station, or the Boston and 
Albany after 1869, at the corner of Beach and Lincoln Streets opposite the 
L'nited States Hotel, was then classed as old and a landmark. Sixteen years 
after, to be exact, in 1881, it was succeeded by a modern structure occupying 
a block bounded by Kneeland, Lincoln and LItica Streets. This new building 
was pronounced to be attractive in its general appearance, while "convenient 
in its arrangements for passengers as well as for the prompt dispatch of 
trains without confusion." The "ladies' room" was especially effecti\-e with 
its unusually comfortable furnishing's, and its "three large fireplaces fifteen 



\ 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



105 



feet in lieight, built of McGregor freestone — a recognition of the ;estlietic 
tendencies of the times." The train-house opening directly from the vestibule 
was exceptionally long and wide for that day. The Old Colony station, 
neighboring the Worcester. i_)n Kneeland Street at the corner of South Street, 
was a plainer structure externally. l)ut with an inviting interior. The Boston 
and Providence station fifty years ago was on Pleasant Street by Park Square, 
a quaint structure, the entrance from the street through a gate-way — perhaps 
the gate-way was an earlier affair, my memory may be at fault — in the arch 
over which used to hang a bell, which in the early railroad days rang fifteen 
minutes before the departure of a train. This station of the 'fifties was suc- 
ceeded bv a station of the "seventies remarkable for its artistic beautv as well 



^^^ 




DELIGHTFUL SCt.NtS REACllLD BV BAY STATE SIREET KAILUAV, ONE OF BUSTO.N S PRESENT DAY SYSTEMS 



as for its adaptability to the uses for which it was designed. Indeed it was 
one of the "show" buildings of the then fairly developed Back Bay quarter 
upon the edge of which it stood. Although surpassed in size by a few struc- 
tures of the kind it was one of the longest passenger stations in the world. 
A great marble hall in the centre of the spacious head-house, imposing in its 
general effect and magnificent in its architectural beauty, was tlie strikingly 
effective feature of the interior. From this hall opened the large and well- 
appointed waiting rooms, dining-rooms, liaggage rooms, and so forth; while 
from a fine gallery surrounding it at a height of twenty-one feet, access was 
given to a travellers' reading-room, a billiard-room, and to the offices of the 
company. The long train-lmuse, with monitor roof, optMied fi'nm the farther 
end of the central hall, approached by a dignified flight of steps the width of 
the building, it being below the level of the head-house. The faij-ade of the 



106 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

handsome exterior facing Columbus Avenue close beside Park Square, was 
marked bv a lofty and finely proportinned tower, high up in which was a 
tower-clock illuminated at night. The architects of this noble station were 
Peabody and Stearns. It cost nearly a million dollars. The Boston and 
Providence in the 'seventies, with its connection one of the trunk lines to 
New York, had become one of the richest railroad corporations in Massa- 
chusetts. In the late 'nineties, or early in the "twenties, this beautiful build- 
ing was demolished, and in its stead was erected the gloomy and depressing 
"Back Bay"' station on Dartmouth Street south of Copley Square. 

The other stations, all on the North side of the city — the Boston and 
Maine facing Haymarket Square, and the Fitchburg, tlie Eastern and the 
Lowell in a row on Causeway Street — were all well arranged, and two of 
them notable structures fifty years ago. The Maine station stood on the line 
of the Boston end of the old Middlesex Canal. It was a plain roomy build- 
ing, without the customary division of head-house and train-house; and being 
at the junction of two streets and Haymarket Square, it was exceptionally 
bright and airy. Its site is now covered by the Emergency Branch of the 
Boston City Hospital. The Fitchburg was the most impressive from its 
fortress-like aspect, with its massive walls and battlemented towers of un- 
dressed granite. It was built in 1847, five years after the completion of the 
road, and apparently to last for centuries. It was historic as well as the 
oldest of the Causeway-Street row, not from its connection with railroads 
Iiut with art. For it was in a great hall in the upper part of the building that 
Jenny Lind, brought out by Phineas T. Barnum the showman, was heard in 
two great concerts by audiences of four thousand people on each occasion, in 
October, 1850. The agent of Mr. Barnum, who at that time was paying the 
Swedish singer one thousand dollars for each concert, sold for the second 
one tickets to a third more persons than could be accommodated. Accord- 
ingly the manager to his great chagrin was obliged to refund the money the 
next day. Even with the exclusion of the disappointed throng the hall was 
so densely packed that many women fainted, and at times there was danger 
of panic. The local newspapers remarked with admiratii.m upon the magical 
effect of Jenny Lind's A'oice in calming the multitude and restoring order. 
Previous to the erection of this station the terminus of the Fitchljurg had 
been in Charlestown. The massive structure remains with slight change in 
its exterior, a sort of annex to the present North Station, utilized for offices 
of the freight department. The Eastern station was the least pretentious in 
the row. It had been erected in 1863 after the destruction by fire of the 
former station, and \\as small and inadequate for the immense business which 
the Eastern had at that time built uji. It was of brick with central tower, 
upon which was a clock which could be seen from several approaches, and 
was depended upon by patrons of all the stations of the row. The Lowell 
station was one of the showiest and largest in the country. It was seven 
hundred feet long, and had a front on Causeway Street of two hundred and 
five feet. It was built on a large scale with a view to much more extensive 
business than the Boston and Lowell alone — the shortest of the initial rail- 
roads, only twenty-six miles long — or with its then northern connections, 
was doing, the expectation being that other roads would seek accommodation 
in it. ^^'hile substantial in build, and elaborate in ornamentation, this new 
station lacked the architectural beauty and refinement of Peabody and 
Stearns' Providence station. The loftv central hall (.)f the head-house, from 



THE ROOK OF ROST()X 



107 



which iipened tlie \ariiiiis rooms for passengers, — itself also arranged for a 
waiting room. — and ahoxe the offices of the company, was a iidtable feature 
of the interior. Another was the great arch of the train-house with a clear 
span of one hundred and twenty feet without an\- central supjiort. The 
station of the Boston, Hartford and Erie, to I>ecome the Xew York and Xew 
England in 1873, was a low, rambling l)uilding with an over-hanging roof, 
similar to country stations, where is now the motlern South Station. 

These separate stations of the initial railroads were discarded with the 
estal)lishment of the two great terminals of today — the South Station and the 
North Station. The South Station was the first to he built and occu[)ied — in 
1899. It faces a scjuare laid out diu-ing its construction, to which was gi\en 
the name of Dewey liy an emotional city government after the recejition of 
the naval hero of Manila in i'.oston, and extends its long lengths on the Sum- 
mer-Street Extension and Atlantic .\venue. If vou will have statistics, here 




BOSTON S PRESENT SOUTH STATION 



they are: Total length on three streets, twenty-one hundred and ninety feet: 
ma.ximnm length of the main station, eight hundred antl fifty feet, maxinnnn 
width seven hundred and twenty-five feet ; length of the train-shed, six hun- 
dred and two feet; total area of train-shed and head-house, thirteen acres; 
main waiting-room, sixty-five feet by two hundred and t\\cntv-fi\-e feet. The 
curved roof is the feature of the train-shetl. This is supported on huge canti- 
lever trusses, the trusses being supported on two lines of columns which extend 
down the full length of the station. The extreme height of the train-shed is 
one hundred and twelve feet ; the middle span is two hundred and twenty- 
eight feet wide, the two side spans, one hundred and seventy-one feet wide. 
The central part of the building is fi\'e stories, the first storv gi\'en to station 
uses, the others for offices of the companies here housed. The ground upon 
which the building stantls is all "made" land. The total area of the site is 
about thirt\'-five acres. As (jriginally designed it was a "double-deck" station. 
The trains were to be separated into two classes, the express or long distance, 
and the suburban. The long distance was to be handled on the upjjer deck; 



108 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

the suburban on the lower. The suburban was to be upon two loop lines laid 
some fifteen feet below the level of the main platform. The tratYic was to 
enter and leave b}- an inclined subway leading down beneath the main floor, 
where the tracks were to form two separate loops swinging around under- 
neath the main platform and leaving by the same incline as that by which 
they entered. But this scheme was never carried out. The North Station 
was a patch-work affair — cle\er patch-work, ho\ve\er — in which were utilized 
the old Eastern station at one end and the Lowell statiem at the other, with a 
brave exterior show of ornamented stone columns between. Its internal 
arrangement is similar to that of the South Station, but on no such elaborate 
scale. The South Station is occupied by the New York, New Haven and 
Hartford combinations, and the Boston and Albany. The North Station, 
by the Maine, the Eastern Division of the ]\Iaine, and the Fitchburg Railroads. 
The era of consolidation set in vigorously in the 'eighties. The first of 
the initial Boston roads to lose its identit}- was the Eastern, which was ab- 
sorbed in the Maine in 1884. The Maine itself was then, and had been 
since the "forties, a system of consolidated originally independently chartered 
roads. It comprised the Boston and Portland chartered in Massachusetts 
in 1833, the Boston and Maine chartered in New Hampshire in 1835, and the 
Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts chartered in jMaine in 1836: 
the consolidation being eiYected on the first of January, 1842. The next year 
the line was opened to the junction with the Portland, Saco, and Portsmouth 
at South Berwick, Maine (which became the Berwick Junction "ten-minutes- 
for-refreshments" station, famous for its Berwick sponge cake), where it met 
the Eastern, and over which the two reached Portland. This line was leased 
and operated by the !\Iaine and the Eastern jointly up to 1871. Two years 
later the Elaine had opened its own way direct to Portland. The Eastern 
with its connections was early controlling the traffic to the northern shores 
of Massachusetts and New Hampshire as well as the bulk of the White 
Mountain tra\'el. For the first thirty years or so of its career the Eastern 
had enjoyed great prosperity, and its dividends were comforting to many 
old Essex County families, where, especially in Salem, its stock was largely 
held. But through a succession of misfortunes from 1873 to 1876 it fell upon 
evil days, and so its ultimate absorption by its old rival was easy. The 
Lowell was the next of the original Boston roads to disappear as an inde- 
pendent organization. The ]\laine absorbed it in 1887. The Lowell and its 
system then included the Nashua and Lowell, the Keene branch, the Northern 
New Hampshire and several minor connecting roads, the Central Massa- 
chusetts, and the Boston, Concord, and Montreal, these all held under leases. 
With this absorption the Maine made connection with New York via the 
Worcester and Nashua (included in another lease) and the Philadelphia, Balti- 
more, and Washington via the Central Massachusetts, and the Poughkeepsie 
bridge. Thus with the acquisition of the Eastern and Lowell systems the 
Maine was enabled to reach a much larger area directly by its own lines than 
any other system in New England at that time. The next year, 1888, wit- 
nessed a yet greater consolidation. This was the absorption, by lease, of the 
Boston and Providence with its connections by the Old Colony. The Old 
Colony had gradually extended its operations by building and leasing in the 
Southeastern and Western parts of the State till it had become one of the 
powerful Massachusetts railroad corporations. Now with the acquisition 
of the Pro\-idence it reached into New York b\- one of the best all-rail Boston 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



109 



and New Yi)rk lines, and it toi)i< rank as the secijnd largest railroad system 
in New England. Then in the 'nineties came the greatest consolidation of all, 
when the New York, New Haven, and Hartford ahsorhed the Maine (which 
subsecjuently, in 1900. took in the Fitchburg by lease), the Old Colony, and 
the New York and New luigland. and monoixjlized the railroad business of 
all New England. 

With the loss of these systems, and particularly the passing of the con- 
trol of the New York and New England which, after many vicissitudes, had 
become a successfully competing line, and essentially a Boston one, Bostonians 
who took a pessimistic \-iew of the New Haven monopoly were wont to speak 
disparagingly (if the jirdud city as only a wav statinn df an alien corp(.iration. 




BOSTON S PRESENT NORTH STATION 



Things, however, were not so bad, and in time Boston recovered something 
of her former influence upon if not control of tlie New England railroad situa- 
tion. At length the New Haven grip was Ijroken, through the warfare 
against it directed by Boston n:en in the State Legislature, and through the 
operation of the Sherman Act; and the history of a new era in New England 
railroad-conduct is at this writing in the making. 

Large men developed with the de\'eloping railroad systems, and several 
of them were especially identified with Boston at different times in these past 
fifty years. There were William Bliss, long president of the Boston and 
Albany, Williaiu H. Barnes, its general manager for a considerable jieriod, 
and H. T. Gallup, the general superintendent. There was James T. Furber, 
brusque of manner and sometimes peppery, but not lacking altogether in 
amialjility. and a thorough-going railroad man, general manager of the 
Boston and Elaine from its absorption of the Eastern and the Lowell systems, 
till his sudden death in 1892. Before the great consolidation Furber had been 
superintendent of the Maine. Tliere were the Sanljorns, Col. Jdhn W., the 
successor of Mr. Furber as general manager of the Maine, and Daniel W., 
general superintendent. There were Charles F. Choate who iiecame presi- 



no THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

dent of the enlarged Old Colony system, and J. R. Kendricks, the general 
superintendent. There was the capable president of the Fitchburg system, 
Robert Codman, of the old Dorchester and Boston Codman family. There 
were William T. Hart, a Boston capitalist, and Charles P. Clark who rehabih- 
tated the Old Boston. Hartford, and Erie with its reorganization as the New 
York and New England. There were the upbuilders of the New York, New 
Haven, and Hartford monopoly, Charles P. Clark and Charles S. Mellen. 
And there was Lucius Tuttle early in his railroad career connected succes- 
sively with the Eastern, the New York and New England, and the Lowell as 
passenger agent ; then general traffic manager of the Canadian Pacific with 
headquarters at Montreal; in 1S90, general manager of the New York, New 
Haven, and Hartford; finally, in 1893, president of the Boston and Maine 
system, which position he held, his energetic administration marked bv more 
absorptions, till after the merger of the Maine with the New Haven in 1909, 
in the accomi)lishnient of which he was largely instrumental, when he retired 
to private life, — one of the ablest and most genial of all these New England 
railroad men, whom I recall most agreeably. It was as his successor in the 
presidency of the Maine that Charles S. Mellen took up his railroad expansion 
work, for the time with headquarters in Boston. 

It is hard to realize that the street railway system was first introduced 
in Boston so late as the closing 'fifties — in 1856, onl}- five years before the 
Civil War; that the first experimental electric line was started only a quarter 
of a century back — on the first day of January, 1889; that the complete sub- 
stitution of the electric system for horse power was effected so recently as 
1892; that the Subway, conceived in Boston and an example for the S3'Stem 
in other cities, is a thing of the closing nineteenth century, opened in 1897, 
close on to the opening of the twentieth century. 

The initial street railway line was between Boston and Roxbury, extend- 
ing from Boylston Street to Guild Row, then the Inisiness heart of Roxbury. 
It was established by the Metropolitan Horse Railroad Company, chartered 
in 1853. It was opened in September, 1856. Before Winter had fairly set in 
the tracks in Boston were extended to Tremont Street, at the corner of Brom- 
field Street, and from Roxbury to Jamaica Plain. Thereafter the development 
of the system was rapid. In 1857 the Cambridge line, from Bowdoin Square 
through Cambridge to Mt. Auburn and Watertown, was opened by the Union 
Street Railroad Company. In December the same year : a Dorchester Avenue 
line, from Broad Street corner of State Street to South Boston and Dor- 
chester. In 1858: the Charlestown line, from Haymarket Square to Charles- 
town and Somerville, and a branch to Chelsea, by the Middlesex Company; 
and a direct South Boston line, from Summer Street to South Boston, by the 
Broadway Company. In 1859: a line to Brookline, by the Metropolitan 
Company. Very soon all the main lines were extended in various direc- 
tions and spurs thrown out to neighboring suburbs. Early in the 'sixties 
the principal business streets and thoroughfares of the City were occu- 
pied by the rails, and conflicts jjetween the railroad companies and the team- 
ing, trucking, and carriage folk as to their respecti\'e rights in the pu1)lic roads, 
were frequent, with the victory invariably to the companies. After a while 
Scollay Square became a busy street-car center, while the Bowdoin Square 
and Haymarket Square terminals remained as before. Scollay Square was 
then, though growing shabby, yet a genteel business quarter, with agreeable 
shops on its Tremont Row and Court-Street sides, in sharp contrast with its 




LUCIUS TUTTLE, DECEASED 



FORMERLY CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE 
BOSTON & MAINE RAILROAD 



112 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

loud, bizarre aspect today, to which old Bostonians must look back with 
regret. The railway station, on the Tremont-Street border, where is now that 
melancholy piece of architecture, the Scollay-Square Elevated Station, was 
the remnant of a row of buildings that for years had occupied the middle of 
the Square, and itself was a landmark. In the early "seventies a line in compe- 
tition with the Metropolitan between Boston and Roxbury was established 
— the "Highland Line" — or the "Plaid Line," as the Roxburv folk dubbed 
it because its handsome cars were uniformly painted in the Highland plaid, 
the enterprise chiefly of Moody Merrill, a devoted son of Roxbury, president 
of the company, a handsome man, with flowing mustache, luminous eyes, 
genteel of figure, and an enterprising man in large ways, whom I came to 
know prettv well. In later years as an editor it was my fate to antagonize 
him in his forlorn campaign at one time for the Boston mayoralty, in which 
he was roundly beaten; but the warfare on my part did not strain for long 
our friendlv relations. In the early 'eighties a "Charles-River" line, in com- 
petition with tlie Union Company's Cambridge lines, was instituted. Then 
in 1887, the West End Street Railway Company was incorporated and there 
soon began a revolution in the street railway system, which ultimately led to 
the substitution of electricity for horse power. 

The beginning was modest. The company was capitalized at the small 
figure of eighty thousand dollars, and its projected line was to run from Bos- 
ton to Brookline, primarily for the purpose of developing a large territory in 
that town in the region about Longwood and the present Coolidge Corner, 
controlled by the West End Land Company. Its organization, however, was 
speedily followed by its acquisition of the largest of the old systems, the 
Metropolitan. Then followed in cpiick succession consolidations of the other 
companies, first, the Highland absorbing the Middlesex, next, the L'nion tak- 
ing in its young competitor, the Charles River; and then in November, 1887, 
all were found in the West End's possession. Now the West End had six 
million dollars preferred stock, one million, five hundred thousand dollars com- 
mon stock, and one million, five hundred thousand dollars outstanding bonds. 
It owned fourteen hundred and eighty cars, and nearly eight thousand horses. 
The next year it had five hundred more cars, and a thousand more horses. 
Then was set up the first experimental electric line, and put in operation on 
the first of January, 1889. This extended from Park Square to Chestnut Hill 
and Allston. From Park Square to West Chester Park (absorbed in the 
great thoroughfare of Massachusetts Avenue extending irom Everett Square, 
in the Dorchester District, through Cambridge and Arlington to Lexington) 
the underground conduit was tried, and beyond West Chester Park the over- 
head trolley wires were used. A month or so later some electric cars of 
the Thomson-Houston make were started between Bowdoin Square and 
Harvard Square. Camljridge. They were operated by the Thomson-Houston 
Company for six months, and the test being satisfying to the W'est End, 
it gave an order for six liundred motors. This was the first decisive step 
in the adoption of the electric svstem. The conduit line having proved 
unsatisfactory it had been abandoned. B}- autumn of 1889 the work of 
installing the new system had Ijegun in earnest. The power was originally 
furnished from a power-house in Allston and from the Cambridge Electric 
Light Company. Soon, however, the West End Company purchased the old 
Hinckley Locomotive Works at the South End, with grounds extending 
from Harrison Avenue to Albany Street, and here built its own power- 



TIIK I^OOK OF BOSTON 113 

house, a great e^tal)lislinient as tlien accinmted. e(|iii|)iie(l with Mclntiish 
and Seymour engines and Thomson-Houston generators. ]\lean\vliile the 
roHiiig-stock of the \\'est End was rapidly increasing and also the num- 
her of its routes. In ilStji it had four hundred and si.xty-nine electric cars 
in service, and sixteen hundred and ninet_\-t\vo horse cars : of the electric 
cars two hundred and hfty-five had a seating capacity one-third greater 
than the old shdrt cars. With the aliening of 189J one hundred and 
seventy-twi) more long cars were ready in the electric service. Three types 
of electric cars were employed: eight-wheel cars designed hy Louis Ptingst, 
the master-mechanic of the \\'est End; six-wheel Rohinson radial cars; 
and Pullman "tlduhle-deckers." 

in i.Sgo the West End Companv nhtained a charter in elevated rail- 
ways. Rut the next }-ear operations luuler this charter were suspended 
pending the report and recommendations of a Rapid Transit Commission 
then created hy the Legislature. The appointment of this commission em- 
powered tn make examinations of systems in nther cities, was the result of 
agitation over the intolerahle congested condition of the downtown streets 
especially ahout the Common — Tremont and Boylston Streets — and the 
consequent delays in transportation, hrought ahuut hy the increase of cars 
and traffic. The commission examined systems in European as well as in 
American cities, and in Fehruary, 1892, made j)reliminary reports upon the 
ad\'antage of a comhination of the elevated and tunnel systems. Then fol- 
lowed a strenuous local discussion of the merits of these svstems singly 
or combined, with wide difference of ofjinion. Several routes for an elevated 
line through the city North to South, with outreaching spurs, were advo- 
cated: while an open cut through or across the Common was ])art of one 
intluentiallx-hacked scheme. The latter r(jusefl the friends and protectors 
of the Common, and the substitution of the Sul)wa\-, advocated b}- them, 
was the final outcome. So the first Subway in Anu-rica for electric cars 
service was born. 

This initial Subway was authorized bv the Legislatures of 181)3 '^''"-1 
1894 (as you may see by the inscription on the bronze tablet at the Park 
Street entrance), and the I^oston Transit Commission to build it created 
in 1894. This commission was composed of five members appointed for a 
term of five years from Julw 1894 (which term was later extended as the 
system of tunnels and subways enlarged), two of the five appointed by the 
State, three liy the Citw The selections of the orig-inal five were made by 
the governor and the ma\or with discretion, so that standing antl experience 
were rather the qualities sought than political pronu'nence. Of the gov- 
ernor's appointees. Oeorge O. Crocker and Horace G. .Mien. Mr. Crocker, 
who was made chairman of the body, liad been a memljer of the State rail- 
road commission. Of the mayor's three, Charles H. Dalton, Thomas J. 
Oargan. and George F. Swain, the first and the third were peculiarly quali- 
fied for the service the}- were to render, while .Mr. Gargan, a popular poli- 
tician, was gifted with a \ariety of abilities whicli rendered him a practical 
working member. The chief engineer, employed 1)\- the commission. Howard 
Adams Carson, was one of the ablest in engineering skill in the country. 
Construction began at the Public Garden on the twenty-eighth of March. 1895 
(again as recorded on that bronze tablet ), and the work was opened to Park 
Street for public tra\el September first, 1897: while its entire length oi)ened 
for travel the third of Sei)tember, 1898. The fame of this pioneer Tremont- 



114 T HE BOOK OF BOSTON 

Street Tunnel at once became widespread. When Lord Kelvin was visiting this 
country, and arrived in Boston, before stopping to have his dinner he hurried 
into this Subway of w liicli he had heard so much, and pronounced it an engi- 
neering marvel. And so it was for a time, until New York was wise enough 
to improve upon it. 

Nothing was done under the West End's charter for elevated railways. 
Instead, the Boston Elevated Railway Company was established, under another 
charter for an elevated company which the promoters had purchased; and 
then the Elevated took over by lease the equipment and properties of the West 
End Compan}-. To the Boston Elevated therefore the Subway was leased 
for operation. The annual rental was fixed at four and seven-eighths per 
cent of the net cost of the work. It was in 1901 that the Elevated system 
in connection with the surface system South and North was opened. The 
Elevated line then extended between the Roxbury District, Dudley-Street 
Terminal, and the end of the Charlestown-District, Sullivan-Sciuare Terminal ; 
with a loop front the North Station and along Atlantic Avenue to the South 
Station, beyond connecting with the main line South. Suljsequently the line 
was extended through Roxbury Southward to Forest Hills, \\'est Roxbury 
District. In 1904 the East-Boston Tunnel, the first submarine tunnel built 
in this country for electric street-car ser\ice, was opened. In 1908 the Wash- 
ington-Street Tunnel was finished and on the last day of November opened 
for pul>lic use, put into service exclusively for elevated trains, which before 
had been run together with surface cars in the Tremont- Street Subway. In 
191 1, by one act, was authorized the construction of the Boylston-Street Sub- 
way through the Back Bay quarter; the Dorchester Tunnel; and the East 
Boston Tunnel Extension. Of these, work upon all of which was promptly 
begun, the Boylston-Street Subway, extending from the Tremont-Street Sub- 
way beside the Public Garden to near the junction of Commonwealth Avenue 
and Beacon Street, was the first to be finished. It was opened for traffic in 
1914. The Dorchester Tunnel passes from under the Park-Street station 
of the Tremont-Street Subway, in connection with the Cambridge Subway, 
under \Vinter and Summer Streets, crossing underneath the Washington- 
Street Tunnel, and is to extend to a point at or near Andrew Square in Dor- 
chester. It connects with the South Station, thus connecting that terminal 
with the subway system at the central Park-Street station. The East Boston 
Tunnel Extension, extending from the tunnel's original terminus in Court 
Street near Cornhill, to Chambers and Cambridge Streets, makes connection 
with the surface tracks in Cambridge Street. The act of 191 1 repealed so 
much of previous legislation as authorized the construction of a Riverbank 
Subway along the green sward of the Charles River Esplanade, and fortu- 
nately that scheme was abandoned. The Cambridge Subway — or The Cam- 
bridge Connection, as officially termed, — which comprises the Beacon-Hill 
Tunnel through Beacon Hill to the open way o\er Cambridge Bridge into 
the Cambridge Main-Street Tunnel to Harvard Square, was opened to the 
public on the twenty-fifth of March, 19 12. The Main-Street Tunnel was 
built by the Boston Elevated. The extension of the Cambridge Connection 
along the line of the Dorchester Tunnel to the enlarged Summer-Street 
station of the Washington-Street Tunnel, was completed and opened in 1914. 

This series of subways and tunnels, models of engineering skill, all owned 
by the City of Boston, are leased to the operating company each at the uniform 
annual rental of four and a half per cent upon the net cost of the work, with 



THE ROOK OF BOSTON 



115 



the exception of the initial Tremont-Street Subway, and the Cambridge Con- 
nection. Tlie rate for the Tremont-Street Subway, as has been stated is four 
and seven-eighths per cent on the net cost; that for tlie Cambridge Connection, 
four and seven-eighths per cent of the net cost fur a period of twentv years 
from the beginning of use, thereafter at fi>ur and a half per cent. Further 




extensions of the system are con- 
templated, and the year 191 7 may 
see substantial additions under- 
way. 

The Boston Elevated Com- 
pany's service is now one of the 
most extensive of its kind in the 
world. Despite public criticism 
from time to time of its handling 
of details, which is the American 
citizen's right in dealing with 
public utilities, and freelv exer- 
cised, its service on the wiioje is 
also among the best. 



^ 



INCOMIf* 




SNAPSHOTS ON LINE OF BAY STATE STREET RAILWAY 




THE CITY'S SOCIAL ADVANTAGES 

Club-Life Fifty Years Ago and Xow — A AIarvelous Increase in 
Number and Character of Boston Clubs and Their Homes 




? IFTY years ago there were Ijut three chib-houses in Boston, 
and six ckibs estabhshed in hxed chib-rooms. Today there 
are twenty club-liouses in the city proper, and sixty odd 
ckibs quartered in cUib-rooms, while each of the outlying 
Districts has its club-house, or club-houses, for some have 
more than one, in good social standing. One of the nine 
clubs of the 'sixties was a Woman's club, the second, — or the third venture in 
the country, if "Sorosis" of New York, organized earlier the same year ( 1868) 
is to be counted second instead of first, as some contend, — a hazardous, bold 
thing it was thought, and looked upon askance by conventional Boston. 
Today there are five woman's cluljs in the city proper sumptuously housed and 
accepted by the community with cordiality; while each of the outlying Dis- 
tricts has its highly cultivated one and as luxuriously housed as the men's 
clubs. Two of the nine of the 'sixties were Boat clubs. Two were Yacht 
clubs. Other than these aquatic clubs there were none devoted to sports. 
There were no athletic clubs as such. The first Base Ball club was not organ- 
ized till 1 87 1. Today there are half a dozen distinctive athletic clubs finely 
housed in the city proper, and a dozen more in the Districts. They include 
clubs devoted to various classes of sports, as the Boston Athletic Association ; 
to one or two particular sports exclusively, as the Tennis and Racquet Club, 
neighboring the Boston Athletic; foot ball clubs, canoeing clubs, riding clubs, 
fencing clubs ; antl, in the Districts, countrv clubs with racing courses, with 
golf links, tennis courts; or golf or tennis clubs exclusively. 

One club feature of the 'sixties peculiar to Boston, which developed 
largely in the 'se\'enties and 'eighties, then in the "nineties began slowly to 
fade out, was the dining club, political, literary, otherwise professional, and 
business. These clubs generally met at the hotels, at Parker's, or Young's, or 
the Re\ere, during the active seasons, some of them weekly on Saturdays, in- 
variablv so the political clubs, others monthlv on Saturdav evenings. The 
proceedings of the political clubs, their table-talk and speeches, were among 
the chief Saturday news "features" of the newspaper reporters and corre- 
spondents. Political questions, party measures, and public men were discussed, 
and sometimes efforts were made to shape the course of political action, or 
to lead public opinion. But they were not largely influential ; most of them 
were partisan organizations, and the speech was more that of the ardent 
"spellbinder" than the astute politician or political leader. Still the political 
leader cultivated the festive institution, and occasionallv the dining club was 



'INK BOOK OF BOSTON 



117 



made the \ehicle fur ln'ingiiig t<i the puhlic te.-t sciine new is>ue i.u" new measure 
or new man fur the governorship or e\en the Presidency. 

Most engaging of these political dining cluhs. and indeed father of them 
all, was the Bird Cluh, so named fur Francis W. Bird, paper manufacturer 
of Walpiile. line nf tlie earliest of genuine Independents in politics, and in his 
long day one of the nidst i)rc)minent i>oliticians of the State; a near ad\iser of 
Governor Andrew throughout the Civil War period; an early and persistent 
Free Soiler; influential in the Republican party councils during the earlier 
3'ears of its history, in 1872 ojiposing Grant's secontl election to the Presi- 
dency, then in fellowship with the Democratic party which he joined with the 




HOUSE OF THE HARVARD CLUB OF BOSTON 



Greeley campaign; in his latter years the "Sage of Waliiole." [lowerful in 
pohtical affairs because of the faith in his honesty, sagacitv, and patriotism 
(it \vas then that I knew iiim best; he used to make a regular .Montlav call at 
my office and talk o\er public matters, measures, and men, with pungent note 
and comment, enlightening my understanding, and often steering me into 
broad paths) ; from whom his eminent, and ma\- I sav more partisan, son, 
Charles Sumner Bird, inherited his political frankness. The first Bird Club 
evolved from Saturday dinners in Young's "Coffee House," in the early 
'fifties, of a group of Free Soilers, at ]\lr. Bird's invitation. Later th.e com- 
pany enlarged, and the organization came to be called "Bird's Saturdav Din- 



118 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

ner Party."' From Young's it removed to a room in the Free Soil head- 
quarters over "Hanson's grocery store," then at the upper corner of School 
and Province Streets. The dinners were sent in by a caterer at a cost of fifty 
cents a plate. Whist and cigars followed the dinner. In 1857 Knownoth- 
ingism interrupted the harmony of the organization, and at length Mr. Bird, 
Henry L. Pierce, and others withdrew and formed a new Bird Club. This 
second Bird Club met at Parker's till i860, then returned to Young's. In 
May, 1859, John Brown dined with the club, brought in by George L. Stearns. 
It is related that early in the Civil War Mr. Bird was accustomed to offer at 
the dinner the toast, "Success to the First Slave Insurrection," to which 
Governor Andrew would add the amendment, "Without the Shedding of 
Blood." In 1868 Elizabeth Cady Stanton dined with the club, the only woman 
ever to be its guest. From this second organization Mr. Bird and his Inde- 
pendent friends withdrew in 1872, when they were opposing Grant, and a 
third Bird Club was formed. The remaining, stalwart Republicans, members 
of the old organization, reorganized the following year as the Massachusetts 
Club, "for good fellowship only." From the remnant of the original "Bird's 
Saturday Dinner Party," when Bird and his associates withdrew in 1857, 
the Banks Club was formed, named for Nathaniel P. Banks, and composed 
of his political supporters and ardent friends. Banks was made the first pres- 
ident, and held that position continuously till 1880. Then he withdrew, 
though retaining his membership, and at his earnest request the name was 
changed. It then became the Boston Club. Between the 'sixties and 'eighties 
county clubs, all Republican, were added to the number of dining clubs — as 
the Middlesex, the Essex, the Norfolk. These generally dined at Young's. 
In 1882 the Massachusetts Reform Chib, an outgrowth of a spirited civil 
service campaign of that year, was organized, to dine quarterly at Parker's. 
Subsequently it took on tariff reform, and became an anti-protective organ- 
ization. Of these political dining clubs there yet linger the Massachusetts 
and the ]\Iiddlesex, meeting at irregular intervals, and the Massachusetts 
Reform. 

Of the professional dining clubs of the 'sixties the literary Saturday 
Club was unique. Only in Boston in that day could be assembled the rare 
material, poets, essayists, scholars, wits, of which it was composed. At the 
monthly dinners during the Autumn and Winter seasons, there appeared 
pretty regularly Emerson, Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes, Whipple, Charles 
Eliot Norton, Benjamin Peirce, Agassiz, and other lights of Harvard; Haw- 
thorne in his last years (he died in 1864). In the next decade Howells, 
Aldrich, Parkman, and others who had attained the intellectual heights, were 
admitted to the charmed circle. There was rarely speech-making, and the 
table-talk was easy and natural, with no eft'ort to pump up fine sayings. 
Envious outsiders — particular]}^ New Yorkers — were wont to characterize 
the club as a "Mutual Admiration Society." But nothing could be farther 
from the mark. Occasionally some guest from the outer world, a man-of- 
letters from some other clime, was entertained. Then there was speech- 
making, and clever and gracious speech. If I recollect correctly Matthew 
Arnold was the club's guest during his visit to Boston and Cambridge. The 
deaths of Emerson, Longfellow, Peirce, and one or two others, in the early 
'eighties, somewhat dimmed the club's intellectual brilliancy; but not for long, 
with Holmes and Lowell and the younger members remaining. In the 'nine- 
ties Lowell, and Parkman, and lastly Holmes, died (Lowell in 1891, Park- 



THE ROOK OF BOSTON 



119 



man. 1893, Holmes, 1S94), and tlie dub's career soon after closed. One of 
the last of its choice functions was a reception to its fellow member Holmes 
upon his return from that last and wonderful visit to England, of which he 
gossiped so delectably in "Over the Tea Cups." The PapjTus dining club 
which came into being the first of the 'seventies, was a sort of junior Satur- 
day Club. It was far less reserved, linwever, much more catholic in its 
membership, had the friskiness of yuuth, and a touch of Bohemianism, 
though of a mild and decorous sort. The original organization was composed 
of a dozen or twenty men, mostly journalists and literary fledglings, who 
assembled on Saturday nights around a generously loaded table at "Billy 
Park's," then on Bosworth Street, where is now the annex of Parker's, and 
tried upon each other their literary wares. From this beginning the club soon 
expanded to large proportions; adopted a constitutirin in which it was pre- 




HOME OF THE BOSTON LODGE OF ELKS 
CONVENIENTLY LOCATED IN THE BEACON HILL DISTRICT 



scribed that two-thirds of the members must be literary men, with such liber- 
ally classing journalists, artists, and publishers; and established itself in one 
of the largest of the "banquet rooms'' of the old Revere. The membership 
now included clever men in the various professions, notably journalism, art, 
music, and the law. The ceremony at the tables was of the sini]ilest. .Vfter 
dinner the "loving cup" was passed from the president, himself first sipping 
the nectar, to the guest or guests (there were always guests, the visitor or 
visitors of distinction in the journalistic, literary, theatrical, or art world, at 
the moment in town), then from member to member; then the literary festiv- 
ities followed. At their I'apyrus dinners some of the gayest work of its 
literary members and poems of its poets ha\e been tried on the critics at the 
board, always deliciously free with their criticism, before the appearance of 



120 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

the effusions in enduring print. Juhn Boyle O'Reilly read first here his "In 
Bohemia" from the rough manuscript draft, which the club members received 
■with shouts of, "Good ! Boyle!" "Good, Good, Boyle!" and cheers. "I think 
myself it's pretty good, boys," the honest poet responds with twinkling eye. 
"Mark these lines again," and he repeats the last two. "They'll do, won't 
thev, boys?" Renewed cheering, tossing of napkins in the air, and toasting 
of the poet. The object of the club, defined to be "to promote good fellowship 
and literary and artistic taste among- its memljers," was fully attained. The 
Papyrus still remains, proud of its past, and well sustained Ijy the clever men 
of the professions of this generation. 

The tliree club-houses of the 'sixties were those of the Temple and the 
Union Clubs — the oldest and the youngest in town — and of the Boston Yacht 
Club at City Point, South Boston. The Somerset did not occupy a house of 
its own — its present Beacon-Street house opposite the Common, a model of 
stately yet simple elegance — till 187J. In the 'sixties it was occupying rooms 
on the Somerset-Street side of the fine old granite mansion house, which in 
the 'seventies became the Congregational House, and afterward made way 
for the present Houghton-Dutton establishment. With its occupation of the 
Somerset-Street cjuarters it took on the name of Somerset. Earlier it was 
the Tremont Club, taking that name from its first quarters in a house on 
Tremont Street opposite King's Chapel Burying-ground. It was an outgrowth 
of the Temple Club, organized in 1852, and from the first was the "swell" 
club of the town, drawing in the young bloods and tlie more mature votaries 
of fashion. The Temple dated from 1829, and until the establishment of the 
Union was the Boston club of highest respectability. Among its early presi- 
dents were George T. Bigelow, afterward chief justice of Massachusetts, 
Patrick Grant, John T. Coolidge. Frederic \\\ Lincijln. the war mayor, 
Peter Butler. It was fashioned closely after the high-grade London clubs, 
even to the custom of members keeping their hats on. Its club-house in the 
■'sixties, on West Street, directly opposite the head of ]\Iason Street, was 
designed and built expressly for it in the 'fifties when \\'est Street was in the 
heart, or on the edge, of the genteel residential quarter. It was most con- 
veniently situated close by the rear, or carriage entrance, to the Boston The- 
atre, so that members could enjoy the combined pleasure of the theatre and 
of the club between the acts. The Temple still exists, but a shadow of its 
former self. Its attractive club-house was long- since turned over to trade, 
when it moved to smaller and snugger rooms on Boylston Street. The 
Teniple and the Somerset were purely social clubs, the Union was social with 
a mission. It \\as formed, as has been remarked on a pre\^ious page, in the 
critical year of 'sixty-three — in April — by Bostonians of infiuence and stand- 
ing primarily to support and sustain the Union cause. It represented more 
solid qualities than either of the other two clubs. It came early to embrace 
in its membership the judges of the higher courts, foremost members of the 
l)ar, leading merchants. Its first president, as we have seen, was Edward 
Everett : and among his successors were such representative Bostonians as 
Charles G. Loring. Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Henry Lee, Lemuel Shaw, son 
of Chief Justice Shaw, \\'illiam G. Russell. Its club-house, on Park Street, 
as we have also seen, was the former residence of Abbott Lawrence. In later 
years the adjoining residence was taken in, and the combined houses enlarged 
by the addition of upper stories, making it one of the largest of down-town 
club-houses. It is most comfortably arranged and a charming old-Boston 



THE BOOK OF ROSTOX 



121 




II ii-nm si ni nil; boston athletic association 

CORNER OK EXETER AND BLAGDEN STREETS 



This association is one of the largest of its class in America. In addition to 

its Boston Club-house, it also maintains an up-to-date boat-house 

and a well-appointed gun club at Riverside, Newton West 



122 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

flavor pervades the interior. In its life of fifty years tlie Union has harbored 
many men of the- highest Boston distinction. Around the Beacon-Park- 
Streets corner, at the lunch hour, or at five o'clock of afternoons, have passed 
Bostonians of light and leading who in their successive days have made "the 
wheels go round." 

Until the opening of the 'eighties these three high-bred club-houses suf- 
ficed for social Boston. Then, under the impulse of the celebration of Bos- 
ton's two hundred and fiftietli anniversary in 1880, the St. Botolph was 
founded as the rejjresentative club of the purely professional life of the city, 
and established itself in the Back Bay. in a house of its own, like that of the 
Union, the former dwelling of a leading Boston mai: of affairs — Henry P. 
Kidder, of the banking house of Kidder, Peabody and Company; and from 
that time the increase in the numbers of Boston club-houses and clubs was 
rapid. In 1881 the Boston Art Club Iniilt its handsome club-house, the second 
in the Back Bav quarter. In 1884 two more clubs of the St. Botolph's grade 
were established : the Ta^•ern, and the Puritan, the latter colloquially called 
the Somerset, Junior. In 1885 the opulent Algonquin was organized, and on 
the first Saturday of January, 1886, occupied and "inaugurated" its quite 
palatial club-house on Commonwealth Avenue, designed, as we ha\'e already 
remarked, by McKim, of McKim, Mead, and White, the architects of the 
Public Library. In 1888 the Boston Athletic Association, the largest organ- 
ization of its kind in the country, was established, and occupied its great, 
thoroughly equipped club-house on Exeter Street, the fourth on the Back 
Bay. In 1890 came the Elysium Club from the South End to the Back Bay, 
the representative Jewish club of the City, dating from 1871, its new house 
on Huntington Avenue provided with all the conveniences and features of 
the high-class modern club. In 189 1, the New Riding Club on the Back Bay, 
devoted to "good horsemanship," was established. In 1892 the University 
Clul), modelled after the University of New York, was organized, and estab- 
lished in a beautiful Back Bay house, on Beacon Street, the rear overlooking 
the Charles River Basin, the one-time residence of General \\'hittier, and 
afterward of Henry L. Higginson. 

A\'ith these club-houses, and numerous organizations established in com- 
fortable hired quarters, literary, art, music clubs, indeed e\'ery sort known 
to modern club life, Boston had become before the close of the nineteenth 
century preeminentlv a club town. With the opening of the new century the 
club-houses increased in number and in splendor of appointments, and vari- 
ous new clubs were instituted for the advancement of schemes for the city's 
welfare together with social purposes. Thus, in the first decade, there started 
up the Twentieth Century Club, with a club-house on Beacon Hill, Number 
three Jov Street, a high-spirited association, intensely Bostonish, devoted 
much to the free discussion and fostering of civic and social reforms at Sat- 
urdav gatherings, tapering ofif with the customary afternniin tea or social 
lunch: and the Boston City Club, a great Boston institution, promoted by 
citizens "interested in the city of Bostun and the problems of its grciwth," 
with a club-house on Beacon Hill slope, in one of the few remaining old 
Boston "swell fronts," at the corner of Beacon and Somerset Streets, and a 
membership before it had passed its infancy of upward of a thousand. \\"nh 
respect to membership this City Club is unique. As stated on the bronze 
tablet inserted in the corner-stone of the club's second and present house — • 
the great house on Somerset Street at the corner of Ashburton Place, erected 



Tin-: V,()()K OF BOSTON' 



12,^ 



ill it-> L-i.^Hilh year, — tlie purpuse uf its Uiundcrs was: "'['u Ijriiii^ together in 
trieiKlly association as many men as we can, of as many creeds as we can, 
and thus create new coiKhtions of good fellowship and good citizenship for 
the service of the cit_\-, and also to destroy the class, religious, and racial 
prejudices which exist when men dnii't know each nther. and which are used 
by grafters and selfish men tn further their schemes to the great harm of the 
City, the State, and the Xatinii." With the occu])ati<in of the new club-house 
in 1914. the membership had increased to upwartl of four thousand, and the 
house is said to be the largest lunch and dining club-house in the country. 
Other club-houses established in this first decade were those of the Exchange, 
a down-town lunch and dining club, the house of dignified architecture on 
Batterymarch Street, designed and erected for its use; and the Architectural 
Club, founded in 1889. its house an old-time residence on Somerset Street, 



Ji' 




;?t 



* T[ ■•Ki JI2- -— ■■ i. "' - 



■ ::"*^ 







THE RECENTLY ERECTED HOME OF THE BOSTON CITY CLUB, CORNER OF ASHBURTON PLACE 

AND SOMERSET STREET 

Number sixteen, purchased from the Ne\\- F.ngland Historic nenealogical 
Society in n>io, after the lattcr's removal to Ashburton Place, and remodelled 
into one of the most artistic club-houses in Boston. 

Meanwhile the women's club-houses were apjiearing, all tasteful in their 
furnishings, the richer ones sum])tuous. The pioneer, the New En.gland 
Woman's Club, established in 1868, as we have seen, alone occupied the 
field, its ]>leasant rooms at Number five Park Street, till the close of the 
nineteenth century. Then the Mayflower Club arose, the lirst purely social 



124 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



woman's club after the men's model. It was an exclusive organization quietly 
established on the upper floors of the house on Park Street next below the 
Union club-house, and it has so remained. The others came with the twen- 
tieth century. There were the rich Chilton Club, of high degree, occupying 
its own house, in the Back Bay, at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and 
Dartmouth Street; the College Club, also on Commonwealth Avenue, an 
organization composed of graduates from women's colleges; the Business 




HOME OF THE WOMEN S CITY CLUB OF BOSTON 
40 BEACON STREET A FASHIONABLE SECTION OF THE CITY 



Women's Club, with a house on Bowdoin Street opposite the State House 
annex; and, the crown of them all, the \\'' omen's City Club of Boston, in its 
own beautiful house on Beacon Hill, in verv close proximitv to the Somerset 
Club-house. In the second decade of this twentieth centurx- appeared 
the Engineer's Club, in the house Number two Commonwealth Avenue; the 
Tennis and Racquet Club-house, on Boylston Street a block or two below the 
Athletic Club-house; and the newest note in modern club-house architecture 
in "The House of the Harvard Club of Boston, built in 19 13," as the legend 
over its portal informs, on Commonwealth Avenue, a few paces below 
Massachusetts Avenue. 




LITERARY BOSTON 



Its Goldkn Age — Famous Men and Women Who Have Added Lustre 

TO THE City's Name — Some Bookmen I Have Known — Old 

and New Boston Publishers and Booksellers 




J^^^f^HAT has l)een termed the "Golden Age of Literary Boston," 
when Boston was admitted to l^e "notoriously the literary 
metropolis of the Union," was the brilliant period, broadly 
CliaBi^^^t^ speaking, between the late "forties and the 'seventies. Then 
the Boston bookshop was an ideal "bookman's exchange." 
And for more than half a century the "Old Corner Book- 
store," famous in the annals of literary Boston, occupying the corner t)f Wash- 
ington and School Streets, was the literary centre. 

This does not imply, however, that the ancient shop was the only literary 
centre. Other bookshops, of similar standing, drew their coteries of literary 
working folk. The shop of Little, Brown and Company, fur example, then 
on the opposite side of Washington Street north of Water Street, was early 
the resort of leaders of the Massachusetts bar, as Webster and Choate ; of the 
group of historians and historical writers who made Boston their literary- 
workshop; of Plarvanl professors: and of what were classed as the solider 
Boston literati. It has been related that for a number of years a little informal 
club met in Mr. Brown's office daily, at noon, to talk of literarv things, and 
])articular]y to discuss the merits of new publications. The fouiulers of the 
house had made it the chief importing and puljlishing house of "useful and 
valuable works in every class of literature," and the foremost law l)ook con- 
cern in the country. It had succeeded the house of Cummings, Hilliard, and 
Company, — "The Boston Bookstore" for half a century, — the earlier classical 
and law bookseller in the town. Little, Brown and Company were among the 
earliest, if not the first, to import English standard and new works, and place 
them on the market here at moderate prices. These importations with their 
inviting prices made a stir in the little cultured town. The house early liegan 
the publication under its own imprint of choice foreign works. Thus it intrci- 
duced its edition of Edmund Spenser in five volumes duodecimo, edited by 
George S. Hillard. This puljlication marked a literary epoch. Then followed 
the notable line of histories; and the famous collection of British poets. The 
antique bookshops were also a resort of literary folk. .\t the shop of Samuel 
G. Drake, sometime on Cornhill, afterward on Bromfield Street, the earliest 
and most famous of antiquarian ]uil)lishers or bocjksellers, and the compiler of 
the local classic, "The History and Antiquities of Boston from 1630 to 1770," 
were often to be seen at different times browsing among the old books, Sparks, 
Hildreth, Bancroft, Everett, Hillard, Starr King, Edwin H. Chai)in, and the 
leading Boston editors — Joseph T. Buckingham, Nathan Hale, George Lunt. 



126 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

The part tliat the booksehers and puljhsliers played in the development 
of Boston's literary life, with their offers and issues of the best literature of 
the day, was not inconsiderable. The\- were men, as a rule, of wholesome en- 
terprise, and themselves of culture. There were Phillips, Sampson and Com- 
pany, who, after an honorable record, and the death of the principals, failed 
in the first of the "sixties. With them began the Atlatitic Monthly. There 
were Charles Little, James Brown, and Augustus Flagg, leaders in Little, 
Brown and Company ; there were Gould and Lincoln : William D. Ticknor 
and James T. Field at the "Old Corner"; James R. Osgood; Benjamin 
Ticknor, second of William D. Ticknor's three sons: Crosby and Nichols, later 
Crosby, Nichols, Lee and Company; Alexander Williams, the first to intro- 
duce the regular sale of foreign journals in America; John P. Jewett ami 
Company, the publishers of "Lhicle Tom's Cabin," which Phillips, Samjison 
and Company declined, fearing its influence upon their Southern trade, much 
to their after mortification ; W" illiam Lee, first of Phillips, Sampson and Com- 
pany, then of Crosby, Nichols, Lee and Company, and finally of Lee and 
Shepard — Charles A. P. Shepard — in the latter association to acquire a com- 
petence ; the antiquarian bookshop men : Samuel G. Drake, above mentioned, 
D. C. Colesworthy, Thomas AI. Burnham : Thomas's more widely known and 
more largely successful son, Thomas Oliver Hazard Perry Burnham; Bartlett 
and Miles; S. Urbino, importer of German and French publications; A. K. 
Loring, with his circulating librar)'. And there were Henry O. Houghton, 
sometime of Hurd and Houghton, founder of the Riverside Press, and later 
founder of the house of Houghton Mifflin and Company; and Edwin Ginn, 
to found the great house of Ginn and Company, the largest school and college 
text book publishing establishment in the country. 

The "Old Corner Bookstore" was itself distinguished as the oldest brick 
building standing in the City. Built in 1712, after the "Great Fire" of 171 1, 
which destroyed most of the property on ^^'ashington Street between the 
Town House, which went down with the rest, and School Street; and it was 
permitted to remain little changed, with its low gambrel roof, row of dormer 
windows, and generally quaint exterior, till its abandonment as a bookshop 
in the early nineteen hundreds. It was first, when transformed from a dwell- 
ing to business purposes, an apothecary shop, occupied in 1817 by the father 
of the good minister, and worthy citizen, James Freeman Clarke. It became 
a bookshop in 182S. the first proprietors being Carter and Hendee — Robert 
H. Carter and Charles J. Hendee. William D. Ticknor came into the pro- 
prietorship in 1833, with the formation of the firm of Allen and Ticknor. 
From 1837 to 1844 Mr. Ticknor was alone in its conduct. Then was organ- 
ized the firm of Ticknor, Reed and Fields. Thus began the long partnership 
between Mr. Ticknor and James T. Fields, who had entered the shop as a 
clerk; in 1865, when Mr. Reed retired, the familiar imprint of Ticknor and 
Fields began to appear on the choice publications of the house. Mr. Fields 
became the literary partner. His offices in the "curtained corner" at the quiet 
rear of the shop, and his easy access particular!}- to literary folk and workers, 
so different from the exclusiveness of the present-day pul.)lisher, was charm- 
ingly pictured by George \\'illiam Curtis in one of his incomparaljle "Easy 
Chair" essays in Harper's Monthly, which has often been quoted, but will 
well bear repetition : 



128 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

" Suddenly from behind the green curtain came a ripple of laughter, 
then a burst, then a chorus; gay voices of two or three or more, but always of 
one — the one who sat at the desk and whose place was behind the curtain, the 
literary partner of the house, the friend of the celebrated circle which has made 
the Boston of the middle of this century as justly renowned as the Edinburgh 
of the close of the last century, the Edinburgh that saw Burns, but did not 
know him. That curtained corner in the Corner Bookstore is remembered by 
those who knew it in its great days, as Beaumont recalled the revels at the 
immortal tavern. . . . What merry peals! What fun and chaff, and story! 
Not only the poet brought his poem there still glowing from his heart, but the 
lecturer came from the train with his freshest touches of local himior. It was 
the exchange of wit, the Rialto of current good things, the hub of the hub. 
... It was a very remarkable group of men — indeed, it was the first group 
of really great American authors — which familiarly frequented the Corner as 
the guests of Fields. There had been Bryant and Irving, and Cooper, and 
Halleck and Paulding and Willis of New York, but there had been nothing 
like the New England circle which compelled the world to acknowledge that 
there was an American literature." 

After 1865, when Ticknor and Fields removed to new quarters, on 
Treniont Street at tlie south corner of Hamilton Place, the "Old Corner" 
was wholly occupied by E. P. Button and Company (Charles A. Clapp), 
which iirm had had a corner of the shop on the School Street side, dealing in 
Episcopal publications, till its removal to New York in 1869, where the house 
is still established. The ne.xt occupant was Alexander Williams, removing" 
from his long-time estaljlishment on tlie opposite side of ^\'^ashington Street 
about where is now the Globe newspaper oftke. Shortly after Mr. Williams 
took into partnership Charles L. Damrell, Henry M. Upliam and Joseph G. 
Cupples, under the firm name of A. Williams and Company. In the spring 
of 1883 Mr. Williams withdrew and retired from business with a comfortable 
little fortune, disposing of his interest to his associates. The lineal descendant 
of the "Old Corner" is the present "Old Corner" on Bromfieid Street at the 
corner of Province Street. Such is the story of this famous bookshop. From 
William D. Ticknor's time to that of Alexander Williams it remained the 
chief resort of the Boston literary lights. Emerson coming to town weekly 
from Concord, for many years invariably called at the "Old Comer," and 
made it his headquarters. Whipple dropped in almost daily. So did Holmes. 
Whittier was always to be seen here when in town from Amesbury. Lowell, 
Trowbridge, Hawthorne after his return from his consulship, Longfellow, 
were regular frequenters. And Prescott, and Motley after his return from 
his unfortunate experience with Grant as minister to England. In later years 
the younger literary workers were accustomed to foregather here : Howells, 
when a Bostonian, Aldrich, Lathrop, and the rest. Now and then a clever 
pen-woman was met here : as Nora Perry, the poet, Louisa M. Alcott, Harriet 
Prescott. When Ticknor and Fields set up their new Tremont-Street estab- 
lishment, they provided an "author's parlor" in it, which became a favorite 
gathering place; yet the "Old Corner" held its own to the end of its story. 

It was my good fortune when a youth to become acquainted with the local 
book business, and to come into agreeable association with several of the 
younger men who were to develop into leaders in tlie trade ; which relation 
in after years, upon my return to Boston as a regular "newspaper man," 
ripened into life-long friendships. I had been a pupil in George Fowle's 
"Monitorial School"- — a private school conducted on novel principles, chief 
of which was putting the boys on their honor in their relations with each 
other, which occupied in part a quaint old granite-front builtling at the north 
corner of Essex and Washington Streets, and vied with Chauncy Hall School. 
then nearbv on Chauncy Place, in games on the Common. Mr. Fowle was 



THE BOOK or BOSTON 129 

a brother of William B. Fowle, of wider fame, who kept a girls' school, and 
became well known in the educational world from his numerous school text- 
books. George Fowle was a kindly, devoted, considerate teacher, but of a 
melancholy cast from over-sensitiveness by being club-footed. I was sup- 
posed to be in delicate health, and in 1859 was withdrawn temporarily from 
school, and put to work in the bookshop of Crosljy and Nichols, then where 
is now the Post newspaper otifice. I spent the season of 1859-1860 in this 
shop, performing various duties of boy and junior clerk ; and during this 
period made the acquaintance of these younger bookmen. There was Thomas 
Niles, a clerk, if I recollect, in the "Old Corner."' In the later 'sixties, 
or early 'seventies, he was to form the firm of Roberts Brothers — strictly, 
Roberts and brother-in-law, for R(jberts married Niles's sister, — and to 
make an early strike with the publication of Louisa IM. Alcott's "Little 
Women." Subsecjuently the firm became noted for its excellent choice of 
English books for reproduction — there was no international copyright then. 
This choice was always Niles's. He introduced, for instance, to the Ameri- 
can reading jniblic, George Meredith. He instituted that famous lot of 
anonymous novels, all by writers of acknowledged worth, under the general 
title of "The No Name Series," setting the public to guessing their authors. 
Roberts contented liimself with the conduct of the business end of the con- 
cern. He was a shrewd l>usiness man, and under his care the house pros- 
pered. Both partners died in the 'nineties. Rolierts was an Englishman, and 
a bookbinder by trade; and he first introduced in Boston, if not in America, 
the rich. sul)stantial half calf and full calf l)indings of standard works. There 
were the Ticknor "l)oys" — Howard Malcolm the eldest, lienjamin, Thomas. 
Thomas alone remains. He is today connected with the Riverside Press. 
There was Charles A. Clapp, the mainspring of E. P. Button and Company, 
with whom my friendship was close during his whole worthy career, in New 
York as in Boston. He died in New York in the year 1901, but Mr. Button 
still survives. There was John S. Lockwood, who was to establish the exten- 
sive bookselling house of Lockwood, Brooks and Company, to fiourish some 
years, and to publish a few books, among them Edwin Lassetter Bynner's 
first novels, and John B. Long's translation of the ^-Eneid of \^irgil. Lock- 
wood became Colonel Lockwood on Governor Long's staflf. He was my 
friend from the first at Crosljy and Nichols" ; in fact my gentle, though 
sometimes autocratic "boss" there. Wiiile I was in Crosby and Nichols' 
emplov, \\'illiam Lee came into the firm, and for some reason he took a fancy 
to me. Our relations in after years, when I was "literary correspondent" for 
outside pa])ers, particularly the AVtc York Evening Post, became quite in- 
timate. Classed with the choicest of my bookman friends was James R. 
Osgood. A more enterprising, genial, frank l)ookman than Osgood was rare. 
Later Air. Houghton became pleasantly friendly, and his liouse published my 
earlier Boston bor)ks. 

The Boston publishers and booksellers today are fewer in nunil)er tlian 
fifty years ago. But their intluencc remains, and authors are gratified to see 
their Iiooks with the Boston imprint. Several young concerns have been 
established in recent years, with more or less success; Init the Jloughton 
Miftlin Companv, Little, Brown and Com]);in\-, and Ginn and Company still 
lead. 




HISTORIC SPOTS IN BOSTON 



Her Part in the Great Strifes of the Nation 




OSTON has played a memorable part in the great strifes that 
have agitated the British colonies and their successor, the 
American Union, since the settlement of this part of the 
New World. First was the struggle with the red aborigines. 
The isolated site of the old town on its peninsula made it 
secure in this regard, but in the earlier years the general sense 
of insecurit\- natural to a small Ijody of colonies on the fringe of a savage 
wilderness was shared by the capital of the colony. The menace of savagery 
had tragic outcomes in towns as near as Jiledfield and Haverhill, but after 
the conclusion of King Philip's War there was little apprehension on this 
score. Then came the great struggle between Great Britain and France for 
the mastery of North America. The French and Indian ^^'ar aroused the 
militant zeal of all New England; Boston stood at the head of these activities, 
contributing largeh' to the Colimial troops that so si)lendidly distinguished 
themselves in the conquest of Canada. It was the initiative of Massachusetts 
Bay that resulted in the magnificent triumi)h of the reduction of the strong 
fortress of Louisburg on Cape Breton and the conquest of the French pos- 
sessions that became the British provinces — an enlargement of the British 
empire that caused no little apprehension in the ^Mother Country lest the 
valiant spirit and military capacity thus developed might encourage unwel- 
come strivings for independence. 

These apprehensions proved onlv too well founded. Oppressive meas- 
ures instituted by the home government, and the chafing of the colonies 
under restrictions upon the self-governing activities that so long had been 
exercised with little restraint, led to the rebellious mutterings steadily increas- 
ing for some years previous to the final outbreak at Lexington and Concord 
in 1775. Then followed the historic siege of Boston. With these beginnings 
of the epochal struggle that was to have so wide an eft'ect upon the political 
destinies of the world in shaping the course of modern democracy, Boston 
took the initiative in the v/ar for American independence. 

The love of liberty thus generated, both political and individual, quite 
naturally made Boston the center of the antislavery movement. This agita- 
tion ultimately precipitated the Civil W"ar, Avhich finally cemented the bonds 
of Union among the sovereign States. Hence from the beginning Boston 
has stood in the lead of the great new world movements for personal and 
political freedom that represent America's contrilnition to modern civilization. 
Of all the cities in the United States Boston is the richest in historical 
associations. These are intimately interwoven with the development of 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 131 

American institutiniis and iiiudcrn progress. Here were chietly centered 
the activities that induced the rise of New England to its leading place in 
American histor}- : the growth of free democratic government upon the foun- 
dations laid by the earl_\- settlers; the development of religious liberty from 
the narrow basis of Puritanism into modern freedom of thought ; the begin- 
nings of the struggle for popular freedom and American independence ; the 
great antislavery movement whose aims were consummated in the war for 
the Union. Here were originated epochal inventions and discoveries of 
infinite moment to mankind — among them the use of sulphuric ether as an 
amesthetic, and the tele])h(.ne. In Boston was installed the first fire-alarm 
telegraph. The cimtriliutiuns of Boston (including Greater Boston) to trans- 
portation histor}- are in\alual)le. Here was built the first railway in America; 
here took place the first electrification of a steam-railroad ; here was the first 
great electrification of a street railway: here was the first great unification 
of a metropolitan transportation system in the United States; here was built 
the first sulnva\' fnr urban transit in the United States. Here was the first 
free public school in America. Here were jjorn, or hail their homes, many 
famous persons. These things are commemorated here as mnvhere else in 
this countrv. Boston's historical assi;ciations form one of the great assets 
of the communitv, attracting hither every }-ear thousands of visitors from 
all over the kuul. 

]\Ianv historic spots throughout the city have l)een designated perma- 
nenth' ]i\' the placing of bronze talilets ; others, as on the Common near Bark 
and Tremont Streets, with more elaborate memorials of stone. The former, 
for the greater part, are due to the efforts of various patriotic orders: Sons 
of the Revolution, Daughters of the Revolution, Colonial Dames, the Loyal 
Legion, and others. In addition, it is customary for the city authorities to 
mark sites, not permanently designated, with well designed inscriptions on 
temporary wooden tablets, placed in the summer season for the benefit of 
the throngs of tourists who come to Boston at that time of year. Another 
admirable custom recently adopted is to inscribe upon the street-signs for the 
old highwavs not only the present name, but below it, in small letters, the 
former name. <ir names, of the street. This custom might appropriately be 
supplemented bv the placing of tal)lets at the beginning of a street with in- 
scriptions reciting the origin of the name — such facts as that Anne Street 
(now North), for instance, was named in honor of Queen Anne; Lincoln 
Street for Governor Lincoln ; Orange Street ( now Washington ) for William 
of Orange: }iIarll)orough Street (now ^^'ashington) for the Duke of Marl- 
borough \\hen so famous]}- victorious. 

]\Ianv of Boston's greatest historic associations are with historic build- 
ings, and the reader will find some of these chronicled under the head of public 
buildings. The great central historic spot is Boston Comnmn. After the whole 
Shawmut peninsula had been bought from the Indians and from William 
Blackstone, the first white settler, the town here laid out a "trayning-held," 
also used as a pasture until 1830. .\t aliout that time the imjirovement of 
the Common for recreation began, the iron fence which still largely encloses 
it having been erected in 1836. The elms of the mall bordering Tremont 
street, now called Lafayette Mall, were planted in 17_'8. This mall w'as 
lately named in commemoration of the outdoor reception to Lafayette which 
there took place. It was foriuerly enlivened by various ])opular attractions 
for children and strangers, including a delightful Punch and Judy show. 



132 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

With the passing of these the place has lost its old-time picturesqueness. The 
banishment of the excellent telescope that so long was a feature here is a 
real loss as a popular educational feature. Here used to resort various eccen- 
tric characters, celebrated in their day. Among them, in the 'sixties of the 
19th century, was "Tom-Ri-Jon" with his wife, both eccentrically clad — he 
with trousers terminating in scallops. Daniel Pratt, "the Great American 
Traveler," used to hold forth here about his adventures, and "Yankee 
Doodle," the itinerant cobbler, was wont to lope rapidly along, whistling his 
titular tune, a pair of boots slung over his shoulder. Another character was 
a queer old man with long, silvery hair, continentally costumed, and resem- 
bling Benjamin Franklin. On the Fourth of July the mall was covered with 
stands for selling peanuts, pop-corn, pink lemonade, ice-cream, etc. The his- 
toric coasting-scenes, the same as when the interference by British soldiers 
led the Boston boys to make their spirited protest to General Haldeman, were 
a winter feature well into the 'eighties of the past century, when the growing 
risks of accident caused its suppression — this time without a syllable of 
protest. The Common is tame today compared with those times. The 
public whipping-post and pillory, after their removal from the ancient 
market-stead at the head of King Street (State Street) before the Town 
House, were located about opposite West Street. The burying-ground 
on the Common, the "Central Burying-Ground," established in 1756, con- 
tains the tomb of Gilbert Stuart, the famous painter, now marked by a 
handsome bronze tablet on the fence, placed by the Paint and Clay 
Club. Near the "Long Walk," from Joy to Tremont and Boylstcn 
Streets, celebrated by Oliver Wendell Holmes in his "Autocrat of the 
Breakfast-Table," and not far from the Frog Pond, stood the "Old Elm" 
blown down by a wi:iter gale in 1776, which probably antedated the settle- 
ment of Boston. It had associations grim, tragic and patriotic. Pirates, mur- 
derers, witches and Quakers were hung from its limbs ; beneath it duels 
were fought; in Revolutionary days the Sons of Liberty hung lanterns on it. 
The sculptured figures for the Army and Navy monument, commemorating 
the Civil War, on Flagstaff hill, were by Martin Milmore. During the siege 
of Boston the Common was fortified by the British, their artillery mounted 
on Flagstaff, then "Powderhouse," hill, and trenches marked what was then 
the water-front on Charles Street. The troops for Lexington and for Bunker 
Hill departed from the Common. Earlier, part of the Colonial forces that 
captured Louisburg and that conquered Quebec, gathered here. In the war 
for the Union many Massachusetts regiments departed from the Parade- 
ground. 

The Old Granary, estalilished in 1660 as the South Burying-Ground, 
was originally part of the Common. Its popular name comes from the public 
granary that stood on the site of Park Street church. Its fence and handsome 
gateway date from 1840. Before it, on Paddock's Mall, stood the noble 
English elms cut down in 1873 in spite of vigorous protest by many eminent 
citizens, including Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. The trees were planted by 
Capt. Adino Paddock, a wealthy Loyalist, in 1782. More eminent persons 
are buried here than anywhere else in Boston — among them the seven early 
governors, Bellingham. Dummer. Hancock, Adams, Bowdoin, Eustis, Sum- 
ner; Peter Faneuil, Judge Samuel Sewall, Paul Revere, the parents of Ben- 
jamin Franklin, the men killed in the "Boston massacre," Robert Treat Paine 
and John Phillips, first mayor of Boston. The most conspicuous monument 



'IHK r.OOK OF BOSTON 



L^3 



is that to Franklin's parents, tlcdicatcd in 1827 with elalmrate ceremonies. 
Tlie inscription was written l)y Benjamin FrankHn himself. Near hy are 
buried most of the Fluj^aienot immis^rants to Boston. 

King's Chapel Burying-Ground is the oldest of all, dating back to the 
year of Boston's settlement. Here are buried (iov. John Winthrop and his 
son and grandson, both Governors of Connecticut, John Cotton, John Daven- 
port (founder of New Haven ), and the wife of John W'inslow, Mary Chilton 
the Pilgrim and first woman to land from the "Mayflower." 

The Copp's Hill Burying-Ground at the North End, originally called the 
North, was established also in 1660, like the Granary. Here are buried In- 
crease, Cotton and Samuel Mather, and Edmund Hartt, builder of the frigate 
"Constitution." The old Ro.xbury Burying-Grouml, at Washington and Eustis 
Streets, contains the grave of John Eliot, apostle to the Indians and trans- 
lator of the Bible into their tongue. Here also are buried the colonial Gov- 
ernor, Joseph Dudley, and his son Paul Dudley, a famous chief justice. In 
the old Dorchester Burying-Ground is the grave of Rev. Richard ^Mather, 
father of Increase Mather. In the old Charlestown Burying-Ground on 




MuMMKNl ilJ JtJli.N HAH\AK1», IDLNUhR UI' HAR\ARD Lt)LI,h(,h 



Phil)ps Street are buried John Harvard, ft)un<ler of Harvard College, and 
Thiimas Beecher, an original settler and ancestor of the famous Beecher 
family. In the ancient Bell Rock Burying-Ground at Maiden is buried the 
Rev. ^lichael Wigglesworth, author of "The Day of D<x)m," the first poem 
of note written in the colony. 

Among the historic buildings the Old State House, Faneuil Hall, the 
( )ld South Meetinghouse, and the present State House, find mention under 
the head of public buiUlings. The oldest and most distinguished mercantile 
building is the famous "Old Corner Bookstore," as described in a previous 
chapter, a picturesque gambrel-roofed edifice, used as a bookstore since i8jS 
to within a few years; in their day the resort of the chief men and women of 
letters in New England's "(iolden .\ge" period. On the site of the Old Corner 
Bookstore stood the house of Anne Hutchinson. Here she had weeklv meet- 



134 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ings of women to discuss the Sunday sermons — our first approach to a 
woman's ckib. 

The most interesting of Boston's ancient dwelHngs is the Paul Revere 
house on North Square, a home of the patriot from aljout 1770 to 1800. It 
was buik about 1676 on the site of Increase Mather's house, burned in the 
great fire of that date. It has lieen painstakingly restored to the style of that 
period, with ckamond-paned and leaded windows, and is full of valuable 
rekcs. 

Many notable old-time buildings still exist in the more ancient quarters 
of Boston. On Custom House Street, opposite the Chamber of Commerce, 
stands the old brick Custom House, where the historian Bancroft was col- 
lector and Hawthorne was first a measurer of salt and coal and later a 
weigher and ganger. Around Dock Square, site of the Town Dock, some 
of the oldest buildings in Boston have only lately disappeared. At the corner 
of North Street was the extraordinarily picturesque ancient "Feather Store" 
with its steep gables and stuccoed walls typical of early Boston, surviving 
into the days of photography. 




JOY S BUILDING, CORNHILL SQUARE 



The present Coruhill, originally "Cheapside," dates from 1816; along its 
crescent lines stantl many quaint buildings of that date. On the site of the 
Old Colony Trust Building on Court Street, then Queen Street, at the corner 
of Dasset Allev, was where Benjamin Franklin learned his trade in the print- 
ing-office of his brother James. Here the latter puljlished the Nczu England 
Coiimiit. the second newspaper in the Colonies. On Brattle Street the Ouincy 
House, an old-time hostelry, stands on the site of the first Quaker meeting- 
house, built in 1697. Opposite, at the corner of Brattle Square, a cannon- 
ball fired in the battle of Bunker Flill eniliedded in its wall, was the Brattle 
Square church, built in 1773 and demolished in 1871. In Scollay Square the 
subway station is about on the site of the first free writing-school, established 
in I 683- I 684. 

In Court Square, on the site of the imposing new City Hall extension, 
was the Old Court House of granite, scene of the antislavery disturbances of 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 135 

iS^i and 1854. Here in Alay, 1854, the Anthuny iJurns' riut caused tlie in- 
dictment of such men as Wendell I-'hillips, Theodore Parker and Tlmmas 
Wentworth Higginsun. Here was the site of the Colonial Prison of 1642, 
where ])ersecuted Ouakers, witches, and Captain Kidd, the pirate, were con- 
fined. Hawthorne depicted this prison in "The Scarlet Letter." On Tremont 
Row stood the house of Oov. John Endicott, built when he moved from 
Salem. Some of the best early houses were built on the slope of Beacon Hill 
on the west side of Tremont Street. John Cotton's house was built in 1633 
and, next d(X)r, that of Sir Harry \*ane in 1635. Governor Bellingham's 
stone house was about on the site of the Suffolk Savings Bank. Here, in 
1 64 1, he took Penelope Pelham for second wife and, being magistrate, per- 
formed the ceremony himself. This house was succeeded by the fine Eaneuil 
mansion with terraced gardens, and finall}-, early in the ic;th century, the 
propert}' was merged in the magnificent (iardner (Ireene estate. 

The famous Boston Museum, with its fine company of players, occupied 
the site oi the Kimball Building. Near School Street on Tremont, on the site 
of the Parker House, was the l)irth])Iace of Edward Everett Hale, l^ng Bos- 
ton's "great citizen." ( )n the site of Tremont Temple stc.md the old Tremont 
Theatre ( 1835 ), a famous playhouse of that day. Opposite was the Tremont 
House, built in 1829. At the end of Hamilton Place was the great auditorium 
of the Boston Music Hall, celelirated in the history of music, and the place 
of worship for Theodore Parker's Twenty-Eighth Congregational Societv. 
Here was the "Great Organ," then the largest in the world. South of West 
Street, opposite the Common, the l)eautiful "Colonnade Row" of fine houses 
ran as far as Mason Street until business came in. The present Chickering 
Building, near Mason Street, is practically a duplicate of one of the okl units. 
Near the present Treim lit Theatre stood Boston's second playhouse, the Hay- 
market, built in 1796. The Hotel Touraine is on the site of the Boston home 
of President John Ouincy Adams and birthplace of his statesman son, Charles 
Francis Adams. On \\'ashington Street, ojiposite Boylston Street, the liuild- 
ing on the site of the famous I^ibert\- Tree, where the Sons of Libert}- rallied 
previous to the Revolution, liears a sculptured commemorative talilet. 
Adjacent stood the old Liberty Tree Tavern. The Hollis .Street Theatre 
was formerly the Hollis Street Clnirch, built in 1808. Here John Pierpont 
and Starr King preached. The older church of Revolutioiiarx- da\s had 
Mather B\les, the witty Tory, for its minister. 

On Beacon Street, between Joy Street and Hancock Avenue, stfiod the 
fine house of Gov. John Hancock, its site now included in the extended 
grounds of the State Hou.se. At the west corner of Walnut Street is the 
house where Wendell Phillips was born. Beyond, near the Somerset Club's 
large granite house, stood the handsome house of John Singleton Coplev, 
the first great Boston painter, built ]>revious to the Revolution, when Copley 
owned the entire slope of Beacon Hill from b>\" -Street to the water. Number 
55 was the home of William H. Prescott, the historian. .\t Number 33 was 
the home of (ieorge F. Parkman, who left several million dollars to the city 
for the maintenance and inii)rovcnieiit of the Common and the [niblic ])arks. 

Park Street, opposite the Common, is still mostly occuiiied bv old dwell- 
ings remodelled for business purposes. The Ticknor Building, at the corner 
of Beacon Street, was in part the home of George Ticknor, the historian and 
publisher. Pielow is the house of the Union Club, Axliicli in part was the 
residence of .Abbott Lawrence, merchant and manufacturer; founder of the 



136 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



city of Lawrence with its great mills. At Number 4, Houghton Mifflin Co., 
the publishers, occupy the winter home of Boston's great mayor, the elder 
Josiah Ouinc\-. Number 2 was the last city home of Motley, the historian. 

Eastward on Beacon Street, at the corner of Tremont Place, was the 
home of Nathan Hale when his son, Edward Everett Hale, was a boy. 
Nathan Hale, editor of the Daily Advertiser, was the leading spirit in the 
movement for railroads out of Boston and was the chief founder of the 
Boston & Worcester Railroad. 

School Street is so called because here, where a Ijronze tablet on the 
City Hall fence marks the site, stood the first house of the Boston Public 
Latin School, established in 1635; the house built in 1645. Its second build- 
ing stood opposite, on the site of the Parker House. 

On Washington Street, then Marlborough Street, nearly opposite 
the Old South, was the famous Province House, residence of the Royal gov- 
ernors — a stately building of brick. After the Revolution it continued in use 
for a time for executive offices of the Commonwealth, including meetings of 
the Governor and Council. Later it was the theatre of the negro minstrels, 
Morris Brothers, Pell & Trowbridge. Then it became a hotel and after 
other transformations its site is now occupied by the Old South Theatre, a 
motion-picture establishment. A portion of the walls may still be seen on 
Province Court near where a curious survival of ancient right of way, in the 
shape of a rather gruesome passage imder the buildings, known as "the 
rat-hole," enters the court. The copper Indian, with drawn bow and arrow, 
that surmounted the cujxila of the Province House, is in the collection of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society. The house was built in 1667 by Peter 
Sergeant, a rich merchant, and was bought by the Province in 1715. 

Beyond, near Bromfield Street, stood the old Marlborough House. This, 
with the old Bromfield House on the south side of Bromfield Street, was the 
headquarters for all the stage-coach lines out of Boston — their arrival and 
departure rivalling in bustle and excitement a great railway terminal of today. 
In the archway where the stages entered and left the great central court was 
long the celebrated "Archway Bookstore," largely in the open air. This arch- 
way also led to the hall where the Lowell Institute lectures were long held. 

In Spring Lane (named from the circumstance) a bronze tablet on the 
Winthrop Building (the first steel-frame building erected in Boston) marks 
the site of "the excellent spring" which caused the Winthrop colony to come 
over from Charlestown and settle the Shawmut peninsula. The spring still 
exists, its waters making their way to the sea underground. They were re- 
vealed in copious volume when the foundations for the Federal Building near 
by were excavated in 1870. Near the Old South, on the site of the Old South 
building, stood the second home of Gov. John Winthrop. After his death 
here it Iiecame the Old South parsonage until its demolition for firewood by 
the British garrison during the siege. 

At the corner of Washington and Milk Streets stands the Old South 
Meetinghouse, the third great monument of the Revolutionary struggle in 
Boston. The Old South Church having been organized in 1669 it built its first 
house on this site; the present church dates from 1729. In the early days New 
England meetinghouses were used for secular as well as sacred purposes. 
Boston's town-meetings were often held here for some years previous to the 
Revolution, the ca])acity being much larger than Faneuil Hall's in that dav. 
The first meetings of moment were held on June 14 and 15 in relation to the 




WASHINGTON ELM AT CAMBRIDGE 

CUT ON A LARGE GRANITE BLOCK AT THE BASE OF THE " WASHINGTON ELM " 
READ THE FOLLOWING: " UNDER THIS TREE WASHINGTON FIRST TOOK 
COMMAND OF THE AMERICAN ARMY, JUNE jD, 1775 " 



History has recorded th.it iipoii the arrival of General Washinijton in Cambridge, 
he took the formal command, under an elm tree, of the American Army, which then 
consisted of about nine thousand militia encamped on Cambridge Common. 

" The Washington Elm " has since become a most venerated relic of Revolution- 
ary days. It has been sung of by our poets and alluded to by our orators. 

In olden days it stood on grounds included in the Cambridge Common, but not 
long since the city authorities devoted to this historic tree, a little court on Garden 
Street bordering on the Common to the South. Years have shorn it of much of its 
former majesty, but it still Hourishcs supported by bands and braces. Every year 
thousands of pilgrims pay their homage to it as a relic of the days that tried men's souls. 



138 THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 

impressing of Massachusetts men for the British man-of-war "Romney." On 
March 6, 1770, the spirit of the great meetings held in the afternoon and 
evening in relation to the "Boston ^Massacre" led to the withdrawal of the 
British garrison from the town to the castle. Then the meetings in relation 
to the tax on tea in November and December, 1773, led to the famous "tea- 
party" of December 16. Through the siege the Old South was used as a 
riding-school for Burgoyne's light dragoons; a large part of the invaluable 
New England library of the Rev. Thomas Prince, in the "steeple-room" was 
used for kindling. In the preceding meetinghouse, a small building of cedar, 
in 1697, Judge Samuel Sewall, conscience-stricken, confessed contrition for 
his share in condemning the Salem witches. Only nine years later Benjamin 
Franklin, born opposite, Avas baptized on the day of his birth, Jan. 17, 1706 — 
not a long interval between the period of extreme bigotry and the coming of 
a great exponent of free thought. 

When abandoned as a house of worship the Old South was temporarily 
used for the post office when the latter, in the Exchange Building on State 
Street, was burned out in the great fire. Its preservation and restoration is 
due to a movement of citizens instituted in 1876. It was purchased by the 
Preservation Comiuittee for $430,000, ^Irs. Mary Hemenway contributing 
$100,000. At the preservation meetings lectures, addresses and poems were 
contributed bv Emerson, Lowell, Holmes, Col. Henry Lee and other eminent 
persons. Emerson made his last public appearance here in a lecture given in 
behalf of a new coat of paint for the old meetinghouse. This was the last 
painting; when removed in 1913 to expose the original red of the brick walls 
smoke had turned the paint to dark gray and black. The building now con- 
tains a fine collection of relics of the revolution and of Colonial days. Here 
are given the "Old South Lectures," including a course for young people, 
instituted by Mrs. Hemenway. 

At No. 17 Milk Street the site of Benjamin Franklin's birth])lace is 
occupied by an ugly iron-front building carrying an inscription with a bust 
of the philosopher and statesman. On the Federal Building, at the corner of 
Milk and Devonshire Streets, the fact that that edifice served to check the 
great Fire of 1872 is commemorated by a tablet placed by the Sons of the 
Revolution where the granite, chipped and defaced liy the heat of the fire, still 
attests the fact. 

At the northwest corner of Federal and Franklin Streets stood Boston's 
first playhouse, the Federal Street Theatre, designed by Bulfinch and erected 
in 1794. On the southeast corner stood the famous Federal Street Church, 
organized as a Presbyterian Church for the Irish immigrants and in that day 
popularly called "the Irish church." With William Ellery Channing as min- 
ister from 1803 to 1842 it became the cradle of the great Unitarian movement 
within New England's Congregationalism, thence leading to transcemlental- 
ism and other phases of religious radicalism. 

The building in which the first office of William Lloyd Garrison's epoch- 
making organ of the antislavery movement, the Liberator, started in 1831, 
stood at the corner of Congress and Water Streets. A tal)let marks the site. 

Fort Hill, one of the three elevations that gave Boston its first English 
name, "Trimountaine," commemorated in "Tremont Street" and "Tremont 
Row," rose where High, Pearl and Oliver Streets now run. The hill was 
named from Boston's first fort, erected here in 1632. In the second fort 
built here Governor Andros was sheltered when he fled from the insurrection 




CHRIST CHURCH 

Oldest church crlifice now standing in Boston. The corner-stone was laid iti April, 1723. 

The signal lanterns of Paul Revere displayed in the steeple of 

this church April 18, 1775, warned the country of 

the march of the British troops to 

Lexington and Concord 



140 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

caused by his tyranny. The hill was long a high-class residential section; 
when levelled in 1867- 1872 it had become a slum. As late as 1872 a bridge 
carried High Street across Oliver Street, excavated at its present level. Fort 
Hill Square is now many feet below its original level. 

At the foot of Fort Hill, where Atlantic Avenue now runs, was Griffin's 
Wharf, the scene of the "Boston Tea-Party." Here three ships, laden with 
tea, were emptied of their cargoes, 342 chests. The story is recited on a 
tablet on the building on the corner of Pearl Street. 

The North End has many historic sites and still not a few old land- 
marks. Hanover Street, its central thoroughfare, named for the royal house 
of Hanover, was in its upper part the center of the great shopping district of 
sixty years ago. On Union Street, then Green Dragon Lane, stood the most 
famous of Boston's old inns, the Green Dragon Tavern, its site marked at No. 
81 by a stone copy of the old sign of a dragon in copper. A hall here was the 
first lodge room of Freemasonry in America ; St. Andrew's Lodge was organ- 
ized here in 1752, and in 1769 the mother grand lodge of the New World, the 
Grand Lodge of the Province of Massachusetts Bay — Dr. Joseph Warren 
the Grand Master and Paul Revere among the other officers. Freemasonry 
played a great part in the secret councils of the leaders of the Revolution, 
the greater nunilier <if whom l)e!onged to the order, and here at the Green 
Dragon the)- planned their operations. The "North End Corcus," a patriot 
organization, at first chiefly composed of the numerous caulkers in the ship- 
yards, had its meeting-place here and originated the political term, "caucus." 
The Green Dragon, established about 1680, existed till the widening of the 
street caused its demolition, some time after 1820. 

Li the widening of Hanover Street, late in the 'sixties of the 19th cen- 
tury, was included the site of "The Sign of the Blue Ball," near the corner 
of Union Street : Benjamin Franklin's boyhood home, the chandler-shop and 
dwelling of his father. Marshall Street, originally Marshall's Lane, makes a 
short cut from Hanover to Union Street. Here, at the corner of Creek Lane 
is a curious relic inscribed "Boston Stone, 1737," part of a paint-mill brought 
from England about 1700. Creek Lane led to the ancient "Mill Creek" that 
connected the old tidal "Mill Pond" formed by a dam at Causeway Street 
with the harbor near Dock Square. At the corner of Marshall and 
Union Streets stands a quaint brick building. Here, in the shop of Hopestill 
Capen, Benjamin Thompson of Woburn, afterwards Count Rumford, was a 
clerk. Upstairs was printed the Massachusetts Spy when the Revolutinn 
broke out. Later it became the U^orccstcr Spy. 

Salem Street was Green Lane, a fashionable residence street, in the early 
days. At the corner of Stillman Street the First Baptist Church was erected 
in 1679. Part of Prince Street was Black Horse Lane, leading to the Charles- 
town ferry. Number 130 was the Stoddard house where Major Pitcairn, 
wounded at Bunker Hill, is said to have died. Prince Street leads eastward 
to North Square, the centre of the Italian quarter. On the North side of the 
square stood the original Old North Church, pulled down by the British for 
fuel during the siege. The Second Church, organized in 1679, worshipped 
here. Its first meetinghouse was burned in 1676. Here the three Mathers, 
Increase, Cotton and Samuel, were successively the ministers. After the 
Revolution the society bought the "New Brick Church," now the Roman 
Catholic St. Stephen's, on Hanover Street. The Italian church on the east 
side of North Square was originally the Sailor's Bethel where "Father 



thp: book op^ boston 



141 



Taxlur" (Rev. Edward T. Ta_\lor), a natural urator, held idrth with famous 
effect. He and Theodore Parker were intimate friends, despite wide diversi- 
ties in faith. 

Ciarilen Court Street, near by, perpetuates with its ])leasant name the 
traditions of the beautiful garden where Gov. Thomas Hutchinson was l>orn, 
and lived until his exile, in a stately house of brick. Here he wmte his "His- 
tory of Massachusetts." The Imuse was mol)l)ed and sacked in the Stamp Act 
riot on the night of Aug. jO, 1765. On Garden Court Street also stood the 
Clark-Frankland niansion, celebrated in fiction by Conju-r in "Lionel Lincoln" 
and by Bynner in "Agnes Surriage." lUiilt by \\'illiani Clark, a merchant, 
it was later the home of Sir Harrv Frankland. 





^ ■#??.: 
^"^.' 



:-*&^J:*S>^ 



STAND VOUR CROUNn 

Do^rrmc Unless HRco UPON 

l-I^T IT B£CI« HCSf 



THE CONCORD BATTLE FIELD AND THE BOULDER RETAINED AS A MEMORIAL TO THE 
'"MINUTE men" who PARTICIPATED IN THAT EARLY STRUGGLE 



Christ Church, on Copp's Hill, built in 1723, for the second Episcopal 
church in lio.ston, is the oldest in Boston. It is now known as the "Old 
North," although the original "Old North" was in North Square. It is com- 
monly accejjted that the lanterns to warn Paul Revere on the night of his 
famous ride to Lexington and Concord, .\pril 18, 1775, were hung in this 
l)elfry, but PTothingham and other authorities claim the distinction for the 
latter. ( ieneral Gage is said to have watched the l)attle of Bunker Hill from 
this belfry. Christ Church chimes, hung in 1744, are the oldest in Boston. 
The church, within and without, has been carefully restored to its ancient 
aspect. Among many valuable relics treasured here is Houdon's bust, the first 
memorial likeness of \^'ashington .set up; also silver vessels for communion 
presented by George H in 1733. Near by, at Salem and Sheafe Streets, is 
the dwelling of Robert Newman, the sexton who is said to have hung the 



142 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

lanterns fur Revere. On Sheafe Street was the birthplace of the author of 
"America," the Rev. Samuel ¥. Smith. Hull Street was named for John 
Hull, who made the Pine Tree shillings. The Galloupe house here dates 
from 1722; it was the headquarters of Gage's staff during the battle of 
Bunker Hill. 

The granting of the Province charter of 1692 is commemorated in the 
name of Charter Street, changed from "the Green lane" in 1708. At Charter 
and Salem Streets, west corner, stood the brick mansion built b)- Sir William 
Phipps, the first royal governor of the province, who began as a ship-car- 
penter. The Colony charter is said to have been hidden for safeguarding, in 
1681, in the house of John Foster at Charter Street and Foster Lane (now 
Foster Street). Paul Revere's last home was at what is now Revere Place, 
off Charter Street near Hanover. On the water-front. North Battery wharf, 
with Battery Street near by, indicates the site of the old battery. The South 
Battery w'as at the foot of Fort Hill, the Y-shaped thoroughfare called Bat- 
terymarch indicating the neighborhood. Next to North Battery Wharf is 
Constitution Wharf, which appropriately names the site of Hartt's shipyard, 
where were built the famous frigate "Constitution" (Old Ironsides) and also 
the frigate "Boston." 

From the North End we cross to what is now the oldest section of 
Boston, — for Charlestown, founded in 1629, was the original settlement, ante- 
dating Boston by about a year. The first houses were clustered about what is 
now City Square. Here Boston was given its name in the "Great House" 
of the Governor, on the west side of the square, on Sept. 17, 1630; near by, 
to the north, dwelt John Harvard. Close by, under an oak tree, the First 
Church of Boston was organized. Town Hill, a slight elevation to the west- 
ward, was crowned liy the "palisadoed fort" of 1629. On Main Street, just 
beyond the Thompson Square station of the Elevated, Samuel Finley Breese 
Morse, inventor of the electric telegraph, was born on April 2y, 1791. His 
father, the Rev. Jedidiah Morse, was minister of the Charlestown First 
Church and author of the first geography of the United States. All Charles- 
town was burned in the battle of Bunker Hill; this large wooden house was 
the first built after the fire. The l)attle took place on Breed's Hill, a shoulder 
of the much higher Bunker Hill. The famous monument stands at the south- 
east corner of the Continental fortification, which was about eight rods 
square. The corner-stone of the monument was laid by Lafayette in 1825 
and the great obelisk was finished in 1842. 

Returning to Shawmut peninsula we find the Old West End, lying be- 
tween Beacon, Tremont, Court, Green and Leverett Streets, rich in historic 
associations. On the west slope of Beacon Hill, long the "Copley Farm," 
was the home of William Blackstone, or Blaxtnn, the first settler. When the 
^'Hancock pasture" was bought for the site of the new State House in 1795, 
a land syndicate, organized to develop the Copley property, laid out the vari- 
ous streets. Later it was attempted to rename Beacon Hill as "Mount Ver- 
non" ; hence Mount Vernon Street, originally Olive Street. Joy Street was 
first named Belknap Street. The north slope of the hill, li mg a negro quarter, 
has now a Jewish population. The brick meetinghouse on Smith's Court, 
erected for the First African Church in 1806, has Ijecome a synagogue. At 
No. 59 Mount Vernon, distinguished by its classic marble doorway, was the 
last home of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the poet. William Ellerv Channing 
lived at No. 83. 







ifrf 




_^,j3t--iaAfa.>.^g 



BUNKER HILL MONLMKNT 
COMMEMORATING THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL, JUNE 17, 1775 



The monuiiicnt was begun in IslS, on the anniversary of the battle, when the curner-slone was 

formally laid by Lafayette. Daniel Webster delivere:! the oration. 

In the great throng that githered on this occasion 

were a few survivors of the battle 



144 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Louisburg Square is the counterpart of a typical old London square. At 
No. lo was the Boston home of Louisa M. Alcott; A. Bronson Alcott, her 
celel)rated father, died here in 1888; her death followed the day after his 
funeral. At No. 20 Jenny Lind became Mrs. Goldschmidt. At No. 4, 
William D. Howells, when editing the Atlantic, had his first home in the city; 
other homes of his were on Sacramento Street, Cambridge ; in Belmont on the 
hill ; in Boston again at No. 302 Beacon Street ; and last, early in the 'nineties,. 
at the Abbotts ford on Commonwealth Avenue. 

Pinckney Street is rich in literary associations. Number 1 1 , where Miss 
Alice Brown now^ lives, was long the home of Edwin P. Whipple, essayist 
and lecturer. At No. 20 the Alcott family lived in the 'fifties; at No. 54, 
and later at 62, lived George S. Hillard, editor and author; at 84 was the 
first Boston home of Aldrich. 

On Chestnut Street, at No. 50, was the city home of Francis Parkman,. 
the histiirian; that of Richard Henry Dana, Sr., the pnet, was at No. 43; 
Edwin Booth, the actor, long lived at No. 29; at No. 13, the home of the Rev. 
John T. Sargent, the famous Radical Club, of the 'seventies and 'eighties, 
was organized by Airs. Sargent — meeting there and also at times at the home 
of Rev. Dr. Cyrus A. Bartol (minister of the old West Church) at No. 17. 
Few occasions ever drew together so many of New England's intellectual 
lights; Emerson, Whittier, Longfellow, Charles Sunmer, \\'endell Phillips,. 
David A. Wasson, John Weiss, Col. T. W. Higginson, John Fiske, Julia 
Ward Howe (who once also lived at No. 17), Edna D. Cheney, Nora Perry, 
Louise Chandler Moulton, and many others hardly less known, were often 
seen here together. 

On Walnut Street, at the head of Chestnut, a modern house stands 
en the site of Motley's boyhood home, and Parkman once lived at No. 8 
Walnut. 

Charles Street has now lost its old-time residential prestige. Oliver 
\\'cndell Holmes long lived at 164, James T. Fields at 148, and T. B. 
Aldrich for a few years at 131. The death of Mrs. Fields, late in 1914, 
closed this chapter, and the beautiful home, where more persons of literary 
distinction (among them Dickens and Thackeray) had enjoyed American 
hospitality than any other in America, was dismantled. Sarah Orne Jewett 
and Louise Imogen Guiney were often Airs. Fields' companions here. It 
was on Charles Street that Dr. Holmes wrote some of his most impor- 
tant work, including "The Professor at the Breakfast Table*' and "Elsie 
Venner." 

Beyond Cambridge Street, fronting on Blossom, we come to the Massa- 
chusetts General Hospital, its main building designed by Bulfinch. Here 
the first surgical operation under the influence of sulphuric ether was per- 
formed by Dr. W. T. G. Morton in October, 1856 — the event commemorated 
by the "Ether monument," with J. O. A. Ward's group of "The Good 
Samaritan," on the Public Garden. In the old Harvard Medical School 
building on North Grove Street Dr. George Parkman was killed by Prof. 
John W. Webster in 1849. 

At the corner of Lynde and Cambridge Streets is Lowell Square, faced 
by the handsome old West Church, now the West End branch of the Public 
Library. It dates from 1808. Here Dr. Charles Lowell, father of James 
Russell Lowell, was long the minister. With the death of Dr. Bartol, its- 




HISTORIC OLD PARK STREET CHURCH, AND ITS BEAUTIFUL SURROUNDINGS. THE COMMON, 

THE HEART OF BOSTON BEYOND. IT IS MARKED AS THE PLACE IN WHICH 

"AMERICA" WAS FIRST PUBLICLY SUNG 



146 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

last minister, the congregation was dissolved. The original ^\■est Church, 
on the same site, was a Revolutionar)- landmark ; its steeple was removed 
because signals were thence made to Washington's camp in Cambridge. 

Even the Back Bay, the youthful quarter of Boston, has its historic 
associations. Number 296 Beacon Street was the last Boston home of Dr. 
Oliver Wendell Holmes, associated with his writing of "The Poet at the 
Breakfast Table" and other of his latest works. In the rear of the house on 
the Esplanade stands the modest Holmes memorial. At No. 302 Beacon 
Street, also on the waterside, Howells lived for some years. Here "Mark 
Twain" was often his guest; cue day the two saved a poor woman from 
drowning herself in the river back of the house. At 241 Beacon Street was 
the last Boston home of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. 

Its many institutions of learning have long made the Back Bay the 
"Latin quarter" of Boston. The removal of the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology to Cambridge closes a great chapter of this life, begun more 
than fiftv vears ago. The handsome Rogers building, in particular, is rich 
in traditions. Here, in Huntington Hall, the free lectures of the unique 
Lowell Institute have long been hekl; in its courses many of the world's 
most eminent men in science and letters have appeared — among them Alfred 
Russel Wallace, associated with Darwin as an independent originator of the 
theory of evolution through natural selection. On Copley Square the Copley- 
Plaza Hotel occupies the site of the first building of the Museum of Fine 
Arts, dating from 1876. 

Taking the tunnel for East Boston we find ourselves in Maverick 
Square, named in honor of the first European settler of Noodle's Island, 
Samuel Maverick, who was living there contemporary with the settlement 
of Boston in 1630. The site of his fortified house is unknown. Belmont 
square on Camp Hill luarks the site of a Revolutionary fort. In East Boston 
the great ship-building traditions of Boston were continued down to days 
when iron and steel replaced wood in ship-construction. Almost the entire 
water-front of the island on Mystic River and Chelsea River was occupied 
by ship-yards, and till after the Civil War the sound of hammers and mallets 
rang out over the water. Here were built man}' famous ships, including 
the "Great Republic," the "Great Admiral" and others celebrated in all ports 
of the world. 

To reach South Boston we shall soon be taking the Dorchester subway 
extension of the Cambridge subway and Beacon Flill tunnel, leaving the 
train within a few minutes' walk of Dorchester Heights, or Telegraph Hill, 
where stands the marble monument, aj^propriately designed by its architect, 
Robert S. Peabody, in the style of a Colonial church tower. This is the 
"Evacuation monument," commemorating the evacuation of Boston bv the 
British on March 17, 1776, forced by the secret fortification of this hill-top 
over night by the Continental Army, thus commanding Boston bv artillery 
fire. This terminated the first chapter in the struggle for American inde- 
pendence and transferred the seat of war to parts outside of New England 
— with the exception of Vermont. 

Another historic feature of South Boston is the original home of the 
Perkins Institution for the Blind, founded in 1829 by Dr. Samuel G. Howe. 
The Imilding, on a sightly eminence near City Point, was originallv a hotel 
— a feature of South Boston's early development as the "court end" of 




PLYMOUTH ROCK. LANDING PLACE OF THE PILGRIMS IN 1620 




THl; I.AFAVhTTE MALL AND TRKMONT STREET, IN THE HEART OF THE BUSINESS SECTION OF 

MODERN BOSTON 



148 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Boston. Celebrated among the students here have been Laura Bridgman 
and Helen Keller. 

Keeping on to Dorchester we find the site of the town's original settle- 
ment in the neighljorhood of Edward Everett Square, accessible by way 
either of Columbia Road or Massachusetts Avenue. The Dorchester colonists 
had their port at the shallow "Old Harbor." Near Edward Everett Square 
is the site of the first free public school established in /Vnierica. The typical 
old Colonial structure on Meeting House Hill is the home of the Dorchester 
First Church, organized in 1831. At Lower Mills on the Neponset River the 
manufacture of chocolate in the L'nited States began in the eighteenth 
century. 

The Roxburv district has numerous historical features. Here was the 
home of John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. On Eliot Square is the old 
meetinghouse of the First Church in Roxbury, whose minister John Eliot 
was for over 40 years. Not far away, near Highland Street, were the Rox- 
bury forts of Revolutionary days. The site of one of these is marked by 
the minaret-like water tower on Highland Park. These two forts, built by 
Gen. Harrv Knux, were important features of the invasion of Boston at 
the siege. At 39 Highland Street was the home of Edward Everett Hale 
for manv vears, and until his death. Here also on Highland Street was 
"Rocklands," the himie of \\'illiam Lloyd Garrison. On Warren Street, 
shortly after leaving the Dudlex' Street terminal of the Elevated, we come to 
the site of Gen. Joseph \\'arren's home, marked by a taljlet; opposite stands 
the fine Warren statue modelled liy Paul Bartlett. Kearsarge Avenue com- 
memorates the fact that the commander of the destroyer of the ".\labama," 
Rear Admiral John A. Winslow, had his home there. Near by is the Rox- 
bury Latin School, an endowed, but not public, institution, founded in 1645. 
Warren became its master when only nineteen years old. 

Weld Hill, in the Arnold Arboretum, was selected by Washington as a 
point to fall back upon in case of necessity at the siege of Boston. His 
favorite resting-place while conducting the siege was the old Peacock Tavern 
at the corner of Centre and Allandale Streets, opposite the Arboretum. Flan- 
cock, when governor, also came out to live in the country at this tavern. 

The limitations of space forbid us to consider here the almost equally 
numerous historic features of Greater Boston to be seen beyond the municipal 
limits. 




BOSTON'S lUHK S\'STKM 



The Most Scientific axd Artistic System of Parkways ok Any 
City IN America — The Far-famed Boston Common 

AND THE Pl"I!I,IC CJaRDEN FraNKLIN 1'AKK ThE 

Arnold ARr.iiUETrM — The Riverway 
AND THE Fens 







OST(3X'S park system is justlv fanieil as the most Cdin- 
prehensive, the must scientifically and artistically planned, 
series of ])leasure-gri:iiin(ls and park\va\-s possessed In' any 
city in America, and perliaps in the wnrld. This system 
comprises the imjxirtant numicipal open spaces of the inner 
cit}-, tiigether with the i^reat metropulitan parks and park- 
ways later develo])fd in the interest ni the entire cluster of cities and 
towns comprised in the Aletn ipulitan Districts, or (ireater Boston. It 
furthermiire includes the local pleasure-grounds established hy the \arii:ius 
nnuiici])alities outside of Boston. 

Yet of all great American cities Bost(jn was one of the latest to awaken 
to the importance of a system of parks in the modern sense. Hence in its 
large aspects the actual beginnings of the modern park s}'stem date hack 
less than forty }-ears. There is a very natural reason for this. Until the 
creation of Central I'ark in New ^'ork as the first great American park in 
the sense accepted today, Boston Common was the largest public ])leasure- 
ground belonging to any city in the country. The city was comparatively 
small in those days: the open country, with the exceptionally beautiful 
suburban communities roundaljout, was easily accessible for rural enjoyment. 
'The need for public recreation grounds was therefore but little felt. 
\\'hen the desirability of parks, in the sense of New York's Central Park, 
Brooklyn's Prospect Park, and Philadeliihia's Fairmount Park, was sug- 
gested here it was common to sav : "But Boston does not need parks; look 
at our sujjurbs! They are parks in themselves." 

ICarly in the 'seventies of the nineteenth centur\' the rapid changes in 
the suburljs caused by the expansion of the city and a progressive oblitera- 
tion of many charming passages of rural landscape made increasingly evi- 
dent the importance of doing something. Acc(jrdingly an act for the 
establishment of a park system was passed and sulimitted to the voters of 
Boston in the }ear 1874. This failed of accc])tance : the decisive voice 
against it was given l)y the recently annexed Dorchester district. it was 
feared in Dijrchester that the principal ])ark W(juld not be within the limits 
of that district. In 1S75 an act creating a board of three park commis- 
sioners with comprehensive j)owers of taking land and of administration 
was passed and was duly accejjted by the voters at a special election on 



150 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

June 9. On July 6 T. Jefferson Coolidge. William Gray, Jr., and Charles H. 
Dalton were appointed the first Boston park commissioners. The second 
report of the board, submitted in 1876, was mainly devoted to an elaborate, 
carefully studied and strikingly comprehensive park scheme comprising two 
systems, urban and suburban: "the former having waterfronts on the 
harbor and the river (Charles) with intermediate parks, the whole designed 
mainly with reference to the public health, but valuable also for the daily 
pleasure of the citizens ; the latter, selected more with reference to the recrea- 
tion of the people, will also, as the city grows, become essential to the health 
of the population then living in their vicinity." 

This plan corresponded in a considerable degree with an admirable re- 
port made in connection with the act that had failed in 1874. While not 
then entered upon as a general scheme it proved largely prophetic. Certain 
features of it became impracticable under changed conditions; others were 
taken up one after the other, piecemeal; others, though always regarded as 
cardinal features, were not considered until comparatively recently. Such 
was the Charles River Basin — hekl at the outset to be of prime importance, 
but for a generation laid aside in favor of other features. 

The realization of the new park s\stem began with the estal)lishment of 
the "Back Bay Park" (now the Fens), Marine Park in South Boston and 
Wood Island Park in East Boston. A park on Parker Hill together with a 
"Jamaica Parkway" running Ijeyond to Jamaica Pond was originally con- 
templated in connection with the Back Bay park ; also a park at Jamaica Pond, 
a "W'est Roxbury park," and a "Brighton park" in what is now known as the 
Aberdeen district. These, together with a proposed park at Savin Hill and 
one on the South Bay, were deferred until the necessary appropriations 
might be made. 

The inadequacy of designs sulmiitted for the Back Bay park led to a 
consultation with ]\Ir. Frederick Law Olmsted, whose creation of Central 
Park had founded a new era in public parks. The result was that Mr. Olm- 
sted was induced to undertake the designing of the entire park system. He 
accordingly took up his residence in Brookline and lived there the rest of 
his life. It was the influence of Prof. Charles S. Sargent, of the chair of 
arboriculture at Harvard University, that brought this about, and thence- 
forward the public-spirited activities of Professor Sargent, quietly exerted in 
various ways, were one of the most potent factors in the shaping of 
the Boston park system. 

The Back Bay Park project was primarily an engineering problem, deal- 
ing with the grave sanitary questions growing out of the pollution of tidal 
flats and the heavy floods from Stony Brook. The stench from the Back 
Bay flats had become intolerable; had they not been effectively dealt with 
the entire Back Bay district, the "court end" of Boston, would have degen- 
erated to a slum quarter. The park-improvement proved its salvation, and 
a heavy assessment, covering a large proportion of the cost, was laid upon 
Back Bay real estate in the shape of a betterment tax amounting to $431,972. 
The plan adopted represented an engineering project made attractive by 
landscape treatment. The engineering features were devised by Mr. J. P. 
Davis, the city engineer ; and Mr. Olmsted was the author of the original 
and strikingly appropriate landscape design. The waterway, designed to re- 
ceive the overflow of Stonv Brook in time of freshet, was made to simulate 
a tidal creek of the sort common in New England coast scener\', meandering 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



151 



thrtiugh marshes Ijetweeii uiilaiul hanks. Mr. ( )lmste(.l found his protot\])e 
in the scenery tlien presented by the valle\- of ]\Iuddy River in Brookline, 
between Chapel antl Longwood railroad stations. He aimed to produce the 
effect of a natural piece of coast-scenery that had somehow been preserved 
while the great city grew up around it. Although developed from a basis of 
noisome tidal flats, the illusion was perfect. Two large liasins with salt-marsh 
levels and banks covered with trees and slirubbery were constructed to receive 
the flood-waters of Stony Brook. \\'ith the overflow coincident with flood- 
tide in the harbor, the liasins took care of the freshet water until the tide 
receded. It iiappened rejieatedly that Stony Brook was thus prevented from 
overflowing its banks and damaging adjacent property to the extent of millions 
for which the city would have been held responsible. The creek, or "Fen- 
water," was kept Iirackish with a rise and fall of almut two feet under the 











-JMK 


''!•■ ■^^ISS'St' -^SlBf^S^' 


tSUS/i-j^^U 










«rv^ 


^^^^Klwiffi*v flMff^^hj 


C^^9^^^9 










''\^ 


^^sCTFcOkeMgi^S) 


Wa^^^w 










^ 


B^^^^l^^g 


W^^^ 










"^fei^ 


j^^^BJ^i^i^B 


'mn^..: 










''^^S^ 


#*:■■• ''",jWffig^«^ •■■•:. ■, 


'^^.>.^/ 


'lr'\ ' 












. •-..vTj- 






^ 


lAk^ 


\^^ 


^MBHjSpSrr^T'- ■ 'vtf'-'j'' ' 




''» 


f^ 




WiMd^ 


^M^s 


^g^^: 


J^.^>=*?'v 


^^ 


1 


^^M* 


■^^■Pv^.^'''^^ 


■^v^W^^^ 




'?? -■^pii'Ji; 1 




k 


:m 


?^ 


^ 


^iSHB^w^HI^HBI^^^H^Ki 


P 




J 






^ferft. -^ 


^^^^^ 


HMHpp^^^^^ 




-i 






• S^-. ^^ 


ii»^.5^. 


V '^ " . 




iw 















FEEDING THE DLXKS IX FRANKLIN P,\RK 



regular sea-tides. Conditions have now been radically changed l)y the con- 
struction of the Charles River Basin and the consecjuent conversion of the 
Fenwater fnjm brackish to fresh. Hence the original function of the im- 
provement has been dispensed with. 

The Fens, as now called, l)ccame the first link in the great parkway 
which was laid out between the Charles River Basin and Franklin Park, with 
an exquisite diversity of landscajie charm marking its course. This parkway 
was unique when created: the first of its ty])e ever constructed. The name, 
"the Fens." characteristic of its tranquil marshland scenery, was suggested 
by Mr, ( )]niste(l, who also originated the appro])riate names for the other 
features of the ])arkwa\' chain: "Charlesgate," between the basin and Bo\ls- 
ton bridge; "F"enway" — l)0\lston bridge to Brookline Avenue; "Riverway," 
— Brookline Avemie to 'Fremont Street; "Jamaicawav," — Fremont Street to 
Pond Street near Jamaica Pond; ".\rl)orway" — Pond Street to Franklin Park. 

These other features of the chain along the great parkway were grad- 
ually developed. First, the grand objective, the park in West Roxbur\-, was 
established as the dominant feature of the whole s\sten). The name "Frank- 
lin Park" was given with the idea that the Franklin luiul, established by 



152 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Benjamin Franklin for some public benefaction in Boston, might become avail- 
able for its improvement. This proved unnecessary, however; ample appro- 
priations had meanwhile been made. The park has an area of 520 acres. 

The Arnold Arljoretum and Bussey Park is the second largest feature of 
Boston's numicipal system, having an area of 222 acres. It was established 
as a public pleasure-ground through co-operation of the City of Boston with 
Harvard University. The university had established the Arboretum in 
accordance with the bequest of James Arnold of New Bedford, who left 
$100,000 for the purpose. Lands owned 1)y the university adjacent to the 
Bussey Institute, Harvard's school for agricultural research, were set apart 
for the purpose, and Prof. Sargent was made director. By agreement 




THE AVIARV IN FRANKLIN PARK, A l-LA^L UF UKEAF INTEREST TO VISITOKS 

between the university and the city the i)ro]ierty was taken for park purposes 
by right of eminent domain and then, with the exception of the roads and 
walks, as planned by Mr. Olmsted, were leased to the university for 999 years. 
Under the guidance of Prof. Sargent the Arl)oretum has developed into the 
greatest tree-museum in the world. Every known species of tree or shrub 
that will thrive in the Boston climate is to be found here. Expeditions to 
China and uther ])arts of the world have been sent out Ijy the Arboretum and 
invaluable collections have been made. The Arljoretum has enriched incal- 
culably the horticultural resources of the United States by the introduction 
of new varieties and species of trees and shrubs. The arrangement and classi- 
fication of species in strictly scientific sequence has been accomplished with 
extraordinary success ; the eft'ect has no suggestion of formality ; a purely 
natural impression entirelv in keeping with the landsca]ie charm of the place. 
A famous feature is Hemlock Hill, its growth of hemlocks the only survival 
of the primeval forest within the limits of Boston. It is a remarkably beauti- 
ful element in the landscape. Spectacles worth long journeys to see, and 
comparable with the Japanese sights when the cherries, plums and other 
species come into bloom, are to be witnessed every year in the Arboretum 
when the lilacs, the mountain laurel, the apples, the cornel, and other blos- 
soming shrubs or trees are in flower. The Arboretum Museum, a simply and 
attractively designed building of brick, stands near the main entrance from 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



153 



the Arborway. It cuntains inii)iirtant liutanical ccillecti<iiis, includiiii^ an in- 
valuable herbarium. 

The great Parkway chain bci^ins in the heart of the city at tlie Public Gar- 
den, Commonwealth Avenue having been transterreil to the park depart- 
ment in 1S94. The parkway runs about six miles from this point to Franklin 
Park. Commonwealth Avenue, 200 feet wide, or 240 feet from house to 
house, was designed l)y Arthur Gilman, the architect, as the central feature 
of his plan for the Commonwealth lands on the Back Bay. 

The Riverway, the third feature of the Parkway, gets its name frum 
Muddy River (now a misnomer, its conversion from a salt and tidal creek 
having made it a clear stream of fresh water). The Riverway landscape has 
a suggestion of old England in its picturescjue charm, particularly in passages 
through Longwood, \\here the fine tower of Sears Chapel is a landmark. 
Muddy River gave to Brookline its original naine of "Muddy River Hamlet," 
and the town's present name is said to have originated in the fact that here 
the boundarv between the town and Boston was a "brook-line." The fine 



^. 


^eSIBB 


X 


^^^S 




\ 




H-*— --*r±rr?-* 


H^^a^^te 


B n 


■ 



THE PlHl K c.AH 



-W.^SHIXGTOX STATl'E 



stone bridges in the Riverway, designed 1)}- Shepley, Rutan cS; Coolidge, are a 
notable feature. The Riverway, like the Fens, originated in a sanitary im- 
provement. The pollutiiin of Muddy River by sewage threatened a nuisance. 
Legislation having Ijeen secured authorizing adjoining municipalities to co- 
operate in the estaljlishment of parks, Boston and Brookline joined in carrying 
out this improvement. 

The Parkway section between Tremont Street and Perkins Street, in- 
•cluding Jamaicaway, was at first called Leverett Park ; that including Jamaica 
Pond, Jamaica Park. On the death of Mr. Olmsted the park commission, 
at the suggestion of Professor Sargent, combined the two parks under the 
name of Olmsted Park, in honor of his memory. Olmsted Park has its own 
distinctive landscape qualitx'. In the valley between Jamaica Pond undulat- 
ing slopes rise from three minor pieces of water connected liv a brook that 
Avas formerly the outlet of Jamaica Pond : Leverett, Ward's and \\'illow 
Pond. Then above, just beyond Perkins Street, lies Jamaica Pond, an un- 
commonly beautiful sheet of water, with its irregular shore line; it is sixtv-five 
and one-half acres in area and is the largest piece of fresh water within the 
municipal limits. It was the source of Boston's first water suppl\-. On the 
south side is the home of Francis Parkiuan, the historian; a fine monument 



154 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

to Parkman, designed by Daniel C. French, stands where Parkman, a devoted 
horticuhurist, used to cultivate his roses and irises. On the north side is 
Pine Bank, long the home of Commodore Perkins of the navy. The hand- 
some homestead is now occupied by the Children's Museum. 

Bevond Franklin Park the Parkway route is continued through Dor- 
chester and South Boston to Marine Park and City Point by way of Columbia 
Road and Strandwa\- — the latter running along the interesting South Boston 
shore of Dorchester Bay and taking in the largest yachting rendezvous in the 
United States. Hundreds of pleasure-craft, large and small, have their moor- 
ings here, their owners largely members of the several yacht-clubs along 
Strandway. 

Marine Park is immensely popular, thousands coming hither on every 
pleasant dav through the open season to enjoy the sea air, the bathing and the 
boating. Pleasure Bay is enclosed between the great pier and Castle Island. 
The Headhouse at the pier, designed b}- the distinguished architect, the late 
Edmund M. Wheelwright, was suggested b}- the handsome German govern- 
ment building at the Chicago World's Fair. On Strandway is the celebrated 
L-Street bath, the oldest and most popular pulilic liath in the United States. 
Absolutely nude Ijathing was the rule here for men and boys until tlie author- 
ities, a few years ago, had a seizure of pruder)-. A great attraction at the 
park is the aquarium. 

Wood Island Park is an attractive local pleasure-ground in East Boston, 
occupying fortv-six acres on what was formerly a "marsh island" with the 
harbor on three sides and a marsh on the fourth. It is approached by a park- 
way called Neptune Avenue, connecting with a drive making the circuit of 
the park. A popular bathing-beach is a feature. 

Dorchester Park, near Lower Mills on the Neponset, has an area of 
twenty-six acres; a natural landscape, rocky and wooded. 

Boston lias a very large number of local open spaces utilized either for 
neighborhood breathing-spots or for playground purposes. Chief of these 
is the famous Boston Common. With the adjacent Puljlic Tlarden we have 
here an area of nearly seventy-three acres — the largest open space occupying 
the heart of anv great city in this country. No city would Ije deliberately 
planned with so extensive an area in its midst. The Common has proved a 
serious obstruction to the normal development of the central business sec- 
tions. This was unforeseen; the Common originally lay well to one side of 
the old town, overlooking the wide expanse of the Back Bay which, in the old 
days, extended the basin of the Charles all the way from the Cambridge 
shore to "Boston Neck" and to Roxbury and Brookline. The Common was 
utilized as a cow-pasture well into the nineteenth century ; along in the fourth 
decade it began to assume its present shape, criss-crossed here and there, 
according to haphazard convenience, by straight tree-bordered paths. The 
city gradually enveli)ped the Common and Public Garden. The development 
of the Back Ba_\' lands made this big open space the centre of the ])i>pulation. 
To overcome the immense inconvenience thus caused has entailed an enor- 
mous trouble and expense. But the Common is held so sacred that the public 
has gladly borne with this ; all propositions to cut desired thoroughfares across 
it, or even to widen bordering streets by encroachments upon its area, have 
been peremptorily overruled by public sentiment. 

The Public Garden, divided from the Common Ijy Charles Street, was 
originally a tract of marsh and tidal flats. Until late in the nineteenth 



IHI': BOOK OF BOSTON 



155 



centur_\- the poiicl was kept filled witli salt water liy an inlldw frdin Charles 
River. The author of its aimless design <if meandering walks, an architect 
named Meacham, was laughingly accused of achieving it hy a liliation upon 
his otfice-floor and then tracing out the course of the water as it flowed al)Out ! 
When the reservation of the (iarden as a juihlic ground was authorized hy 
legislation the cit\- was empowered to erect there a city hall or either public 
building. But puljlic sentiment has alwa)'s strongly opposed any jiroposition 
to take advantage of the right. 

The modern plavground movement in this country originated in Boston 
when, as suggested liy Frederick Law < )Imsted, ojien-air gynmasia were estab- 
lished b\' the park commissiun at the ( harle^bank, both for men and lioys and 
for women and girls — the latter in charge of a committee of the Massachu- 
setts Emergency and Hygiene Association with trained women superintend- 
ents and assistants. Out of these beginnings eventualK- grew the great 
n-.ovements for supervised ])lay which have S])read all over the Cduntry. 




I-KANKL[.\ P.^RK THE OVERLOOK 



Bostiin has now fort_\-two distinctive jjlaxgrounds scattered (i\-er the 
city. Portions of the parks and city squares are also devoted to pla\-ground 
purposes. The largest pla}'ground in the country is Franklin Field, near 
Franklin Park. It has an area of seventy acres. The first public plavground 
in the United States, specifically set apart as such, was established bv the 
town of lirookline: the small open space on l-Jrookline A\-enue near lirookline 
Village, now adjoining the Riverway. 

The Board of Park Commissioners has included nian\- distinguished cit- 
izens who have disinterestedly served the ])ublic without paw Anmng them 
have been Col. Henry Lee, the Hon. John V. .\ndre\\ , Cen. Francis A. \\'alker, 
and Col. Thomas L. Livermore. The last chairman of tiie Board, as originally 
constituted, was Robert S. Peabody, the architect. On March 2, 1913, the 
consolidation of the ])ark and the public-i)laygrounds departments having 
taken effect, the park commission was succeeded b\ ,-i Park and Recreaticjn 
Commission, under a salaried chairman. 

To meet the need of the greater part of the metropolitan pupulation for 



156 



THE BOOK OP' BOSTON 



a comprehensive scheme of recreative tipen spaces the MetropoHtan Parks 
District was constituted in 1893. It comprises thirty-eight municipahties : 
The fourteen cities of Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Lynn, Maiden. 
Medford, Melrose, Newton, Ouincy, Revere, Somerville, W'altham, Woburn; 
and the twenty-four towns of Arlington, Belmont, Braintree, Brookline, etc. 
The definite movement which promptly led to this consummation had its 
origin in a study for a federated metropolis comprising Boston and the 
surrounding municipalities, made in 1891 by Sylvester Baxter, the journalist 
and author. The proposition for a system of metropolitan parks included in 
this study so impressed Charles Eliot, the landscape architect (a son of Pres- 
ident Eliot of Harvard University), that he proposed to its author that they 




MIDDLESEX FELLS, OX LI.NE OF BAY STATE STREET RAILWAY 

organize a movement for realizing the idea. This was carried out so suc- 
cessfully that a Metropolitan Park Commission of three, authorized by the 
legislature to study and report upon the matter, recommended a comprehen- 
sive scheme for a system of metropolitan parks on the basis aforementioned. 
Messrs. Baxter and Eliot had been made, respectively, the secretary and the 
landscape architect for the commission and the studies made for the report 
were their work. The legislation recommended was enacted almost unan- 
imously and a park loan of $1,000,000 was authorized for beginning the 
work. The Metropolitan Park Commission of five members thus constituted 
consisted of the three members of the original commission — Charles Francis 
Adams of Ouincy, Philip A. Chase of Lynn, William B. de las Casas of 
Maiden, with the addition of Abraham L. Richards of Watertown and James 
Jeffrey Roche of Boston. 

The greatest areas are comprised in the three great sylvan reservations : 
The Blue Hills, the Stony Brook Woods and the Middlesex Fells. The river 
reservations are along the Charles, the Mystic, and the Neponset. The sea- 
shore reservations are at Revere Beach, Winthrop Shore, Nahant Beach, 
Lynn Beach and Shore, and King's Beach in Swampscott; also at Nantasket 
Beach and Ouincy Shore. In addition the Beaver Brook reservation in Bel- 
mont and W'altham has the nojjlest group of ancient oaks in New England. 

The main units of this system are connected up by important park- 
way routes that, with the development of motor-vehicles, have become indis- 
pensable elements of the metropolitan jilan. The Middlesex Fells Parkway, 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



157 



comprising I-''"ells\vay, Fellsway East and Fellsway West, runs from Broadway 
in Somerville to Middlesex Fells reservation in Maiden and Medford, re- 
s])ectively. A sadly needed link across Somerville and Camljridge between 
Mystic and Charles Rivers remains to be supplied. The Revere Beach Park- 
way branches from Fellsway just beyond Mystic River and runs through 
Everett, Chelsea, and Revere to Charles Eliot Circle at Revere Beach. Thence 
the road skirts the beach and, crossing Saugus River, enters Lynn as Lynnway, 
connecting by the city highways at Lynn Beach with the drive along Nahant 
Beach to Nahant and to the northward along the fine residential waterfront 
of L\nn til the beach at Swampscott. I'Tum Middlesex Fells reservation a 
])arkwa\- planned to connect with Lynn woods has been constructed into 
Melrose. A spur parkway from the Fells to Wakefield is projected. 





:^mL 












^^|M^^^HPHlt«<. *■• 










r . . 


■ . .-.J^^^m.. 








',.,.. - 








mm 




jM 








W, 


m 


jm. MWKKIL 


*\>*'.*' 


W-'K'w - 


''^mp- 


SWE^''iSis^-A«' 


■M 




ir^* 


-:'^'"^^:^'\ 


-:#-■ 


- ■ ' i 




*M^- "■-' 


.„• 


[. 


f-'^+rV 


■ik-: . 



PVBLIC GARDENS AND BEACON HILL VIEW FROM THE TOP OF ARLINGTON CHURCH STEEPLE 



The Mystic \'alle}' Parkwa\' has been constructed from the MidiUesex 

of the Alierjima River and along 



I*"ells in Winchester through the vallev 



the Mystic Lakes tlown the Mvstic River valley through Arlington antl Med- 
ford to a connection with the State highway of Mystic Avenue in the latter 
city, thus connecting with Fellswav at Broadway Park, Somerville, and with 
Sullivan Square. Charlestown. It is jilanned to extend the Mystic \'alley 
I'arkwa\- also to a connection with the Revere Beach Parkway at Fellsway in 
the Wellington district of Medford. This will make a through jiarkwav route 
from Winchester and Woburn to the sea — connecting with Woburn by a 
spur parkway from Winchester, now partly constructed. 

.\long Charles River the jjrojected system of drives and parkwa\s has 
l)een largely realized by the riverside road (including the Speedway ) which 
connects with the Cambridge Esplanade and drives at the Anderson Memo- 
rial Bridge and, bordering Soldiers' Field, continues the s}-stem through 
Brighton to Watertown, eventually to be carried beside the river to a con- 
nection with the section com])leted between Newton Lower Falls and Newton 
Upper Falls. From the Charles River in C am1)ridge the Fresh Pond Parkway 
runs from Mount .Vuburn Street through the Lowell Memorial Park, for- 



158 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

nierlv part of the grounds of "Elnnvood," the poet's home, to Fresh Pond — 
thence to be extended through ArHngton Ijy way of Spy Pond to the Mystic 
Vallev Parkway at M}-stic Lake and also l)y way of z-Mewife Brook (Menot- 
•omy River ) to Mystic River. 

From the Boston park s}-stem at the Arnold Arljoretum the Metropol- 
■ itan system connects with the Bhie Hills by way of the \Vest Roxbury Park- 
way (still incomplete) to Stony Brook Woods and thence through Readville 
by way of Paul's Bridge to the reservation. A second metropolitan connec- 
tion with the Blue Hills extends the Blue Hill Avenue Boulevard (thus 
connecting with Franklin Park) by way of the Blue Hills Parkway through 
Milton. This chain of drives is continued to the sea through the reservation 
roads in the Blue Hills and thence by the Furnace Brook Parkway to salt 
water at Merrymount Park and the Ouincy Shore reservation. 

The largest of the metropolitan reservations is the Blue Hills, in Ouincy, 
Milton, and Canton, with an area of 4,906.43 acres. This comprises an entire 
range of mountain-like hills. The highest summit is at Great Blue Hill, 635 
feet above sea-level : the greatest elevation in Massachusetts east of Mount 
Wachusett ; also the greatest on the Atlantic Coast of the United States south 
of Mount Agamenticus in Maine. This range gave the name to Massachu- 
setts Bay: "The place of the Great Hills." The reservation also includes 
Hoosicwissick, or Houghton's, Pond and extends to the north shore of Ponka- 
pog Pond. 

The second s\'lvan reservation in size is Middlesex Fells, i,8g8 acres, in 
Medford, Winchester, Stoneham, Melrose, and Alalden. This acreage does 
not allow for the considerable extent of the several beautiful sheets of water 
in the reservation, including Spot Pond of the Metropolitan supply and the 
three reservoirs of the Winchester supply. The greatest eminence. Bear Hill, 
is 370 feet above the sea, and its fine concrete tower carries the height to an 
even 400 feet. 

The third s\lvan reservaticn is the Stoii)' Brook Woods in the Boston 
districts of West Roxlniry and Hyde Park, with 463.76 acres. Turtle Pond 
in this reservation is the source of Stony Brook. Bellevue Hill, 320 feet high, 
is the highest point in the city of Boston. 

The Charles River reservation, with the addition of various quasi-public 
and local jjublic holdings, has made the banks of the river almost continuous 
l)ul)lic domain all the way from Hemlock Gorge at Newton Upper Falls to 
tide-water at the Charles River Dam. Of the local public holdings the most 
important are those of Boston and Cambridge. In the Charlesbank. between 
the dam and West Boston, or "Cambridge" Bridge, Boston took the initiative 
in the improvement of the basin; Cambridge folk)wed by taking for recreative 
purposes nearly the entire river-front of the city as far up as Alount 
Auburn Cemeterv, which, together with Cambridge Cemetery, are the most 
notable quasi-public Ijuildings. That part of the river between Newton Lower 
Falls and Waltham is the greatest canoeing-ground in the LTnited States; 
thousands of canoes are kept here and the spectacle on a summer holiday is 
worth a journe\' to see. 

The improvement of the river culminated in the conversion of the lower 
secti(.n. between Watertown dam and the sea, from a salt-water estuary to a 
reach of fresh water about seven miles long — the basin below Cottage Farm 
Bridge thus liecoming a large lake. This work was carried out by a specially 
constituted board, the Charles River Basin Commission, established by the 



■mi-: ROOK OF BOSTOX 



159 



Legislature of 1903. The work was seven years in progress. The antiquated 
Craigie Bridge was replaced by a dam and causeway carr}ing a handsome 
avenue one hundred feet wide. Navigation is facilitated li\- two locks — a large 
ship-lock with electrically i;perated sliding gates and a li>at-lock for small 
craft. On the Boston side, in the rear of Brimmer and Ileacon Streets, a 
handsome esplanade was constructed, complementing the Cambridge Espla- 
nade acrt)ss the river. This sectii n of the river is crossed bv four monumental 
bridges, including the magnificent viaduct of the Bost(.n ]''le\'ated Railway 
just below the dam, (he new West Boston Bridge, the Anderson Memorial 
Bridge between Cambridge and Soldiers' Field, built b\' the Hon. Larz Ander- 
son in memory of his father, Cen. Nicholas Longworth .\nderson, a soldier 
of the Civil War, and the fine granite l)ridge at Watertown. The establish- 
ment of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the Cambridge side 
near Harvard Britlge, with its impressive columnar facades and central dome. 




THE FROG POND BOSTON" COMMON 



has contributed largely towards making the basin the great central "court of 
honor" for Metropolitan Boston. Upon its completion the care and control 
of the basin was transferred to the Metropolitan Park Commission. 

The AI\stic River improvement has converted to public holdings the 
greater portion of the river banks from the centre of Winchester to Welling- 
ton Bridge between Somerville and Medford. From Winchester the Mvstic 
Valley Parkway runs along the east shores of the Mystic Lakes and thence 
down the river. From Cradock Bridge in Medford, upward, the river was 
converted into a full basin (including the lower ]\Iystic Lake) bv the ccn- 
structi(jn of a dam with a li ck. The malarial marshes bordering Alewife 
Brook and Menotomy River in Somerville, .\rlington, Cambridge, and Bel- 
mont were thus converted into wholesome, dry territory. Na\igation for 
small craft was thereby extended to Spy Pond in Arlington. 

The Neponset River improxement involved the conversion of the greater 
part of the shores of that stream to park ])uri)iises in the Hvde Park and Dor- 



160 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Chester sections of Boston and in Alilton and Onincy. All but a fraction of 
the Neponset River reservation (922.59 acres in all ) is made up of the Great 
Fowl Meadows, containing an area of about 900 acres in Milton, Canton^ 
Dedham, Boston, and Westwood. This portion of the reservation was ac- 
quired by means of gifts of $10,000 and $5,000, respectively, from Augustus 
Hemenway (formerly of the Metropolitan Park Commission) and Charles 
\'an Brunt. The Great Fowl Meadows had long been a menace to health 
both through pollution of the Neponset and as a breeding ground for moscjui- 
toes. The river, however, has lately been dredged and its level reduced by the 
lowering of the Hyde Park dam, thus effectively abating lioth nuisances. 

The ^letropolitan Park System has a total area of 10,427 acres, not in- 
cluding a large acreage owned by municipalities and given over for care and 
control. 




SCENE AT SWAMP3C0TT — BAY STATE STREET RAILWAY 



First in importance among the seashore reservations is Revere Beach, 
whose three-mile crescent presents a superb spectacle of popular recreative 
activities, day and night, through the summer, chief of which is the sea- 
bathing from the great establishment conducted l)y the Metropolitan Park 
Commission, with accommodations for thousands in the course of a day. 

Further north are the beaches and shore drives of Lynn, Nahant, and 
Swampscott, with ancther fine bathing esta])lishnient fur the public of the 
Lynn neighborhood. 

The mile of shore at Winthrop makes a fine drive and promenade. 

At Nantasket the metropolitan administration has developed another 
great popular resort, with bathing and other attractions similar to those at 
Revere Beach, though on a smaller scale. 

At Quincv Shore metropolitan occupancy has developed an attractive 
drive and promenade and encouraged an excellent residential character along 
a stretch of coast where shallow waters made commercial development 
impracticable. 

The smallest of the metrojiolitan reservations is Beaver Brook in Bel- 
mont and Waltham, where, Iteside the noble group of oaks, some of which 
have been growing for more than a thousand years, is to be seen the cascade 
celebrated by James Russell Lowell in a l)eautiful lyric, "Beaver Brook." 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 




Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER XI 



THE RELIGIONS OE BOSTON 



Development of the Churches — Changes from Puritanism to 
Catholicism — Dominant Sects of the Present Day 




i^ N i860 tlie leadins: relicrion of Boston was Contrreeational 



Unitarian. Of a total of one hundred and seven churches, 
t\vcnt\'-fiiur were Unitarian; fourteen Congregational Trini- 
tarian, or Orthodox; fourteen Baptist; twelve Protestant 
Episcopal; twelve Methodist; six Universalist ; four Presby- 
terian; ten Konirui I'atholic; \arious other dcnoniinatiuns, 
eleven: the latter including (jue Ouaker, one Swedenhorgian, two Jewish syn- 
agogues. In 1880 (after the annexation of adjoining municipalities), the 
total nuinher, including nu's^ion chaiiels, lieing two hundred and twenty, 
there were: thirty-two Congregational Orthodox; twenty-six Congregational 
Unitarian: twenty-six Methodist Episcopal; twenty-seven Baptist: twenty- 
two Protestant Episcopal: nine Universalist; eight Presbyterian; thirty-one 
Roman Catholic; other denominations thirt\'-nine, including seven Jewish and 
five Lutheran. Thus it appears that the Congregational Orthodo.x had the 
largest number of churches, while Roman Catholic had come up to rank 
second in the list. To this extent modern Boston had drifted from its old- 
time Puritan moorings. In 1900 the Roman Catholic churches were out- 
numbering those of any single Protestant sect, and in membership constituted 
over 55 per cent, of the city's population. This change in the religious charac- 
ter of Boston's population has become still more marked from year to year un- 
til, at the present time, it is conservatively estimated that the once stronghold 
of the Puritan is now a Roman Catholic city with adherents numbering about 
70 per cent, of the entire people. Meanwhile the Protestant Episcopal church 
had come to second place in the list. 

In the 'sixties and 'seventies several of the richer churches were seeking 
sites and erecting more elegant edifices in the new West End on the "Back 
Ba}-," following the movement of fashion. A few, however, selected the 
South End as still the desirable (|uarter. Such was the case with the leading 
Universalist Church, — "The Second L^niversalist Society in the Town of 
Boston," formed in 1817, — originally the "School-Street Church," its first 
meetinghouse having been on School Street, where is now the School-Street 
Block. This was the pulpit for thirty-five years, till his death in 1852, of 
Hosea Ballon, called the father of modern Universalism in contradistinction 
to the Calvinistic type of the Universalism of John Murray, the founder of 
the sect, wlio was first preaching in lioston in 1785. .After "Eather" Ballon, 
the jiulpit through half a century, till the close of his life in 1895, was occu- 
pied by Alonzo A. Miner, Ballou's colleague from 1848, who was famous 



162 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



aniuiig Euston ministers of his day, a leading pleader for the cause of total 
abstinence, and for some time president of Tufts College. After Doctor 
Miner came his colleague and successor, Stephen H. Rcihlin. The society 
erected its new edifice at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Clarendon 
Street, in 1872; an imposing structure of Roxbury stone, with shapely stone 
tower and steeple at the side, and an interior, light and cheerful, built in the 
clear without pillars, illuminated with several richly designed painted win- 
dows. The costly house lingered long after the South End had been deserted 
by fashion ; and at length met a melancholy fate, burned down in a winter's 
night in 19 14. No successor was built. Another selecting the South End 
for a new structure was the Berkeley-Street Church, Congregational Trini- 
tarian, which built on a sightly spot, the junction of Warren Avenue with 
Tremont, Dover, and Berkeley Streets. This society was originall\- the 
"Pine-Street Church," built in 1827, and marking the corner of \\'ashington 

and Pine Streets. It as- 
sumed the name of "Berke- 
ley-Street" with the occupa- 
ti: n of the new edifice in 
1862. It was pronounced the 
largest Protestant house of 
worshiji in New England. 
Its pastors included some 
eminent Orthodox ministers. 
It was the pulpit of Doctor 
Henr\- AI. De.xter for eight- 
een years — 1849- 1867. Time 
worked great changes in this 
establishment. Ultimately it 
was transformed into a 
popular institutional church. 
Another selecting this quar- 
ter was James Freeman 
Clarke's "Church of the 
Disciples." Its unpreten- 
tious and capacious meeting- 
house, which was erecte(.l on Warren .Avenue in 1869. was its third or 
fourth house. It remained here, like the Columbus Avenue Uni- 
versalist Church, till lung after the abandonment of the South End 
bv many of its congregation — through the remainder of Dr. Clarke's 
useful life, and after his successor, the late large-minded Charles C. Ames 
had been occupying the pulpit for some time. The society's present house 
is the attractive structure in the Fens-park-district. Others choosing the 
South End were : the Uniim Church, Congregational Orthodox, Columbus 
Avenue corner of West Rutland Square, erected in 1869, originally on Essex 
Street, dating back to 1822, pulpit for more than forty years — till his death 
in 1878 — of the accomplished and cultivated Nehemiah Adams, who fell into 
disrepute with the antislavery folk through his book, published in 1854, after 
a visit to South Carolina, entitled, "A South Side View of Slavery," defend- 
ing the institution; and who ever after went by the sobriquet of "South Side 
Adams"; the South Congregational Church. Unitarian, Union Park Street, 
the society dating from 1827, this meetinghouse built in 1862, the first one 




OLD BRATTLE STREET CHURCH 



THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 



163 



having Ijecii on the corner of Washington and Lastle Streets over which 
]'"ii\varcl Everett Kale was settled fnmi 1856 to the close of his memoraljle 
life, in 1913; and finallv the Ivnnian Catholic Cathedral, the second one, at 
the corner (jf Washington and Maiden Streets, liegun in 1867 and finished 
and dedicated in 1875. Others (iriginally hnilt here were: the Church of the 
Unit}', Unitarian. West Newton Street, erected in 1860, three years after 
the organization of the snciety, puljiit of George H. Hepworth for thirteen 
vears, when he exchanged L'nitarianism for Orthodoxv; then In- M. T. Scher- 
nierhiirn; and finally Mini it J. Savage, after whose retirement in the 'eighties 
the career of this society closed; and the beautiful Church of the Inmiaculate 

Conce])tion. Roman Catholic, 
erected in 1861, as has been 
stated, under the ausjiices of 
the Jesuit bathers. 

The churches earliest aji- 
pearing in the Mack IJav 
were erected in this order : 
the Arlington-Street, i860: the 
Emmanuel Church, i86j: the 
Central Congregational Trini- 
tarian, Berkeley comer of 
Newbury Street, 1867; "The 
Eirst Church in Boston," 1868; 
the Brattle Square Church, 
now the Eirst Baptist Church, 
1873: "The Second Church in 
Boston." 1874 ( later removed 
to make way for trade, its site 
now occupied by the ^^'esleyan 
Jiuilding, and its present meet- 
inghouse or structure of refined 
taste in the English Ceorgian 
st\le, with Parish house ad- 
joining, on Audul)on Circle, at 
the line between Boston and 
Brookline ) : the New Old 
South, 1875; Trinity, 1877. 
The latest to be built were : 
the Hollis-Street Church, 1884, 
idpit of John Pierpont, Starr 




.NEW S'lUllI CHURCH 
FORMERLY AT SE:MMER AND BEDFORD STREETS 



after its tamous 



d meetiuijhouse. 



King, and other notal)!e Unitarians, was transformed into the Hoi 
Street Theatre: now the South Congregational Church, union of 
the two churches, through the jmrchase by the South Congregational 
in 1887; and the stately stone "Christian Science Temple," on Eal- 
niouth. Norway, and St. Paul Streets, "The Eirst Church of Christ, 
Scientist," as officially termed, the "Mother Church," so called, richlv en- 
dowed by the late Mrs. Eddy, founder of this cult, or sect, the impressive 
.structure rising to the lofty height of two hundred and twenty feet, crowned 
by a magnificent dome, with a melodious chime of bells; an auditorium of 
five thousand sittings; and approached from Huntington Avenue through a 
beautiful iiark and garden. 



vi> '^•'^■«' 




SECOND CHURCH CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN 

A handsome structure of refined taste in the English Georgian style with parish house 

adjoining, on Audubon Circle, at the line between Boston and Brookline. 

Erected in 1913. This is the seventh edifice of the Second 

Church, and the sixth in line from the historic 

Old North Church in North Square 




FIRST CHVRCH, UNITARIAN-CONGREGATIONAL 

On Berkeley Street at the corner of Marlborough Street, a beautiful stone edifice, 

of the finer type of ecclesiastical architecture, erected in 1868. 

This church is the fifth in succession from the rude 

little fabric of 1632, which stood on 

the present State Street 



166 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

With the exception of the South Congregational Church, which is of 
brick and unpretentious architecture, though of richly embellished interior, 
these Back Bay churches are of stone and elaborate in design. The richest 
in the latter particular are Trinity, the New Old South, and the First Baptist ; 
that of the quietest elegance — the First Church ; the most dignified, and sat- 
isfactory to the e_\'e of the lover of old London ecclesiastical architecture — 
the Arlington-Street. 

Trinity was H. H. Richardson's masterpiece, while the interior decora- 
tions, elaborate and exciuisite in taste, have been characterizeil as an enduring 
monument to the skill of John La Farge. The massive central tower, two 
hundred and eleven feet high, surmounting the structure, is the main feature, 
as was the front tower of the earlier Trinity, on Summer Street, which went 
down in the Fire of 1872. This tower, rising from four great piers at the 
intersection of nave and transepts, dominates the structure. The style of 
the whole work, as delivered by the architect, is a free rendering of the French 
Romanesciue as shown in the pyramidal-towered churches of Auvigna, and 
"endeavors to exemplify the grandeur and repose of the eleventh century 
architecture in Aquitane." The chapel, itself a most picturesque piece of 
architecture, is distinguished through its connection with the church by an 
open cloister, where are appropriately placed stones from St. Botolph's in 
Old Boston, England, presented to Trinity by the authorities of that church. 
In the construction of the foundation of the edifice, stone saved from the 
ruins of the old church on Summer Street was utilized. The present is the 
third Trinit}'. The first was on Summer Street at the corner of Bishop 
Alley, now Hawley Street, erected in 1735, seven years after the organization 
of the society, a little house of wood, ninety by fifty feet, with gambrel roof, 
standing with its end to the street. The second Trinity, built in 1828, was the 
solid Gothic structure of stone, intended to reproduce the old English style 
of the Episcopal Temple, that was burned. Trinity has been conducted by 
a long line of distinguished rectors. It was the ])ulpit of Phillips Brooks from 
1869. The statue of the beloved preacher which stands at the side of the 
church is by St. Gaudens. 

Of the New Old South and the First Baptist Church, the tower has also 
been made the dominating feature. That of the New Old South, two hundred 
and forty-eight feet in height, with its rich combinations of colored stones, 
and graceful windows, has been nuich admired for the fineness of its design. 
That of the First Baptist, a massive Florentine tower, is less high, rising one 
hundred and seventy-six feet, Ijut is more elaljorate, more majestic, and more 
highlv decorative. It stands almi)st independentlv of the church edifice. The 
four grou|5s of colossal figures in high relief, one on each face, between the 
belfr)' arches and the cornice, are designed to represent the four Christian 
eras. Baptism, Communion, ^Marriage, and Death; the great statues at the 
corners are to typify the Angels of the Judgment l:)lowing g(jlden trum]iets. 
From the New Old South tower the arcade in which are placed inscribed 
tablets, extends to the South transept; the vestibule, paved with red, white, 
and green marble, is separated from the nave Ijy a large carved screen of 
Caen stone, supported on colunms of Lisbon marble and crowned by gables 
and finials. The ornate exterior, decorated with a lielt of gray sandstone 
delicately carved to represent vines and fruit, among which are seen birds and 
animals, presents a sumptuous edifice. Richness marks the whole work in 
marked contrast with the dignified simplicity of the historic old meetinghouse 








NEW OLD SOUTH CHURCH 

In the Xorth It.ili.in Cuthic style of architecture and ii(iU\vnrth>- for richness 

of design. A marked contrast to the dignified simplicity of the 

historic old meetingliouse which this one succeeds. 

A glimpse of the Public Library in the 

foreground at the left 

Dra;i'in£ hy II . I.ouii GUason. 



168 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



which this succeeds. Its style is the Itahan Gothic. The chapel and the par- 
sonage adjoin the church. At the time of the removal from the old meeting- 
house Jacob M. Manning was the pastor. He had been the colleague of Doc- 
tor George W. Blagden for fifteen years, from 1857. Doctor Blagden had 
served from 1836 to 1872. Doctor George A. Gordon, the present pastor, was 
installed in 1884. The Brattle-Square was H. H. Richardson's first church- 
building on the Back Bay. The architect's design was definitely to express 
massiveness and solidity ; and the church edifice was built without regard to 
■cost. For instance, the great figures sculptured on the sides of the tower, 
from designs of Bartholdi, were carved by Italian sculptors, brought out from 
Italy after the stones had been set in place. The church when finished and 






FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BUILT IN 1808 



•occupied proved so poor in acoustic properties that Doctor Lothrop, the minis- 
ter, could with difficulty be heard in the body of the house. The society fell 
into debt occasioned by the expense of the work, and dwindled in numbers, its 
members scattering among other Unitarian churches. At length, in 1876, the 
historic society was dissolved. For a time the church was closed. Then, in 
1881, the property was disposed of at auction. J. Montgomery Sears was 
the purchaser. About a year later Mr. Sears sold it, with the exception of 
the tower which was reserved as a monument, to the First Baptist Church. 
Thus one historic organization succeeded another. The First Baptist is the 
lineal descendant of the much persecuted First Baptist Society organized in 
1665, the door of whose first diminutive meetinghouse, on Salem Street, built 
in 1680, was promptly nailed up, when the house was completed, by order of 
the governor and council of the Colony. The Brattle-Square was the "Mani- 




FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH — COMMONWEALTH AVENUE 



The four groups of colossal figures in higli relief, are designed to represent the four 

Christian eras, Baptism, Communion, Marriage and Death. The massive 

Florentine tower gives the structure an especial distinction 

in the Back Bav architecture 



170 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

festo Church," formed in 1699, so called l)ecause the original members when 
they organized, while atlopting the belief of the Orthodox churches of the 
time, issued a document recognizing the right of difference of belief among 
the members, and abolishing the distinction between church and congregation. 
It liecame Unitarian among the churches earliest changing from the Orthodox. 
The tirst minister was ordained in London. Its eminent Unitarian ministers 
in succession included Joseph Stevens Buckminster, Edward Everett, John G. 
Palfrey, and Samuel K. Lothrop. The original meetinghouse was on Brattle 
Square. The predecessor of the Commonwealth-Avenue Church was the 
second meetinghouse, occupying the same site. It was new when the Revo- 
lution came, — having been built in I'j'ji-i'j']},, — and was a fine specimen of 
the English style of churcli of the latter eighteenth centur)-. The interior was 
exceptionally fine, and "the pride of the town." It was used tluring the Siege 
as a barracks for British soldiers, like several of the other churches. It re- 
mained revered as a landmark till 1871, when it was sold, torn down, and 
made way for a business block. It was distinguished by "wearing on its 
bosom as a bride might do, the iron breastpin that the Rebels threw," — the 
cannon-ball which, fired from a battery in Cambridge by the Americans on 
the night of the Evacuation, struck the church. After the Revolution the 
cannon-Iiall served for a while as a weight on the yard gate of a dwelling- 
house near by, then was embedded in the church's front, as a memento of 
that event. This cannon-ball is now retained in the collection of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society; and a dainty model of the historic meetinghouse 
stands in the upper hall of the Society's building. The First Baptist Society 
improved the interior of the Commonwealth-Avenue edifice, and added in its 
rear a new vestry, with lecture-room, class-room and a ladies' parlor for social 
gatherings. 

The chaste First Church, beautiful in design, of the finer t\pe of ecclesi- 
astical architecture, fitly represents the succession of meetinghouses of "The 
First Church of Christ in Boston" beginning with the pioneers' little mud- 
walled anil thatch-roofed structure beside the Market Place. Its rich interior 
contains various mementoes of the past. On one of the painted windows is 
inscribed the church covenant adopted and signed by \\'inthrop and other 
leaders when the church was formed, in Charlestown on the thirtieth of July, 
1630, only a few weeks after the arrival of the Winthniji Comi)any, whence 
it was removed to Boston when W'inthrop's removal was made. With the 
rare old communion plate is shown an embossed silver cup with the inscrip- 
tion engraved on its rim, "The Gift of Gov'' Jn" Winthri>p to Y*-' i' Church." 
The statue of Winthrop, on the Marlborough-Street side of the church, is 
that by Richard S. Greenough, which used to stand in the midst of a network 
of street-car tracks at the junction of Court and Tremont Streets, and Corn- 
hill in front of Scollay Square. It is a duplicate of the Winthrop statue 
]jlaced by the State of Massachusetts in the Capitol at Washington. It repre- 
sents the governor as just after landing on the soil of the New World. Be- 
hind the figure appears the base of a newly cut forest tree with a rope attached, 
signifying the fastening of the boat in which the governor is assumed to 
have come ashore. The figure is clad in the picturesque garb of the period. 
The right hand holds the roll of the Colony Charter, the left hand, a Bible. 
The statue was first set up here in Boston and uncovered to the public 
on the seventeenth of September, 1880, the day of the celebration of the 
two hundred and fiftieth anniversarv of the settlement of the town. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



171 



Tlie Arlington-Street Church is the successor of the Old I-"ederal-Street 
Church, pulpit of William Ellery Channing from June, 1803, to the time of 
his death, October second, 1842, whose portrait-statue, by Herbert Adams, 
we see in the carved granite and marble canopy against the Public Garden, 
facing the meetinghouse. The society was originally formed as Presbyterian, 
in 1727, and first occui)ied a barn, roughly transformed into a meetinghouse, 
on "Long Lane," which became Federal Street. In 1744 a plain church build- 
ing, of wood, replaced the barn. In 1809 a brick edifice replaced the wooden 
one; and this, in turn, in 1859, having become isolated in the midst of a 
quarter by this time devoted to business, was taken down and the erection 
of the .\rlington-Street Church began. The Federal-Street Church became 
I'nitarian in 1786. when Channing struck the liberal tone. Channing was 




TRIXITV CHURCH, COPLtV SQUARE, AND CUl'LEY- PLAZA HOIliL 



succeeded by Doctor Ezra Stiles Gannett, who had been his colleague from 
1824. Doctor Gannett served with distinction till his tragic death in the 
dreadful accident on the Eastern Railroad known as "The Revere Disaster," 
August twelfth, 1871, when he was seventy years of age. He was a profomid 
scholar, and was also given to much philanthropic work. Successive pastors 
have been : John F. W. Ware, who came to Boston from Baltimore, Brooke 
Herford, an Englishman, wlm came from London to a Chicago ])nlj)it in 1875, 
and thence to Boston, and Paul Revere Frothingham, who is the present 
minister. This church is one of the few in the trnvn containing a chime of 
bells. The Emmanuel Church was built especially for a parish (irganized two 
years before (i860), for Frederick 1). Huntington who had been pastor of 
the South Congregational L^nitarian Church, Plummer Professor of Christian 
Morals and Preacher tn the Laiiversity at Cambridge, who had left the Uni- 
tarian fold and joined the Protestant Episcopal Church. Doctor Huntington 
was ordained deacon in Trinity Church September twelfth, i860, and the 



172 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

following Suncla_v took charge of the new Episcopal parish. He continued 
rector of Emmanuel till 1869 when he was made bishop of Central New 
York. He was succeeded in Emmanuel li}- Doctor Alexander H. A'inton, who 
had been rector of St. Paul's from 1842 to 1858, when he removed to Phila- 
delphia ; and Doctor Vinton, by Leighton Parks, now of New York. The 
present rector is Doctor Elwood Worcester. The Central Church is the lineal 
descendant of the "Franklin-Street Church," formed in 1835 to occupy the 
"Odeon" (the Federal-Street Theatre made over into a concert hall). In 
May, 1841, the Society built on Winter Street, and was renamed the "Central 
Congregational Society." The Winter-Street Church stood just west of the 
foot passage suljsequently opened to the old Music Hall, and a low structure, 
with pillared porch it became an attractive landmark. It gave way for trade 
before the removal of the society to its Back Bay church. Famous old time 
Congregational ministers have been among its pastors, as John E. Todd, 
John De Witt, and Doctor Joseph T. Duryea. 

While so many of the leading churches re-established themselves in the 
South End and the Back Bay, following the shiftings of fashion, several of 
the historic churches are still permitted to remain "down town." These in- 
clude : the rare Old South Meetinghouse, King's Chapel, Park-Street Church, 
St. Paul's, now the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral, Christ Church at the 
North End, the oldest church building now standing in the city. The Old 
South Meetinghouse dates from 1730, succeeding the first house of the society, 
the Third Church in Boston, described as the "little cedar meetinghouse," 
erected in 1669. The present King's Chapel dates from 1749, when the cor- 
ner-stone was laid, and 1754 (it was slow in building because of the slowness 
of subscriptions to the building fund) when the structure was sufficiently 
advanced to permit the beginning of regular services within it, in August that 
year : it was built so as to enclose the first chapel which Andros caused to be 
erected for the first Episcopal church in 1688, and which had been enlarged 
in 1710. Christ Church dates from 1723: Park-Street from 1809; St. Paul's, 
1820. 

The buildings shown on opposite page are at the centre of a religious 
movement which radiated from Boston and has now become worldwide. Mrs. 
Eddy's personal teaching of Christian Science Itegan at Lynn, but nearly all of 
it was done in Boston. Her writings on this subject were published here from 
the first and are yet, while the organization of the Christian Science denomi- 
nation not only begun in Boston, but "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 
in Boston" was and is "The Mother Church" of the entire movement. The 
first Christian Science organization was formed July 4, 1876, in Charlestown, 
by seven persons, including 3ilrs. Eddy. Its meetings were held in the homes 
of its members. In 1878 she began to deliver public lectures on Sunday after- 
noons in rented churches and halls, but the holding of public services regularly 
by the Christian Scientists of Boston may be said to date from 1883, when 
they rented the "Hawthorne Rooms," which were then at No. 3 Park Street. 
One of these rooms seated about 225 persons, and here sermons were deliv- 
ered on Sunday mornings, usually by Mrs. Eddy, but sometimes by certain of 
her students or by invited clergymen of different denominations. In 1885 the 
Christian Scientists moved to Chickering Hall, then on Tremont Street, which 
had a seating capacity of 465. Here a Sunday school for children was added 
to the Sunday sermons. In March, 1894, Copley Hall on Clarendon Street, 
seating 625 persons, was engaged, and services were conducted here until the 




2 « 

£ > 



i 



174 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 

church buikHiig at Fahiiouth and Norway Streets was ready for use in Jan- 
uary, 1895. This edifice, seating 1,100 persons, was used until 1906, when it 
was enlarged by a new auditorium having 5,000 seats. These two buildings 
occupy the triangle bounded by Falmouth, Norway, and St. Paul Streets. Be- 
tween them and Huntington Avenue is an open garden or park with footways 
for passage, while just across St. Paul Street are the buildings, dating from 
1908 and 19 14, of the Christian Science Publishing Society. Church services 
are held in the larger auditorium on Sundays at 10.45 a.m. and 7.30 p.m.; 
\\hile the church buiklings are open to visitors from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on 
Wednesdays and Fridays. 

The present Old South Meetinghouse has the most stirring history, while 
that of its predecessor is full of interest. For it was in the little cedar house 
that the Quakeress, Margaret Brewster, with her companions, "arrayed in 
sackcloth and ashes, barefoot and her face blackened," made that hostile 
demonstration, on a sleepy July Sunday of 1677, with her sudden appearance 
during service and proclamation of the warning to the town of a "grievous 
calamity," "called the black pox," soon to come upon it for its persecution of 
her sect: that in 1686 Andros ordered opened Sunday forenoons to the Epis- 
copal Church which had been tem])orarily established in the Town House, the 
Colonial council having refused the use of it by any of the churches, when 
its services extending into afternoon reserved for the regular congregation. 
Judge Samuel Sewall recorded in his Diary the "sad sight to see how full the 
street was of peojile, gazing and moving to and fro because they had not 
entrance into the church" ; that in 1696 Judge Sewall stood up in his pew with 
bowed head while his confession of contrition for his share as a judge in the 
witchcraft delusion at Salem in 1692 was read from the pulpit; that Ben- 
jamin Franklin, born in a little house which stood in Milk Street nearly oppo- 
site the side entrance to the meetinghouse, on Sunday, January sixth (old 
style, January seventeenth new), was the same day baptized, his father and 
mother belonging to the church. It was in the present house, before the 
thrilling pre-revolution events of which it was the scene, and which earned it 
the title of "Nursery and Sanctuary of Freedom," — that on a Sunday of 
October, 1746, as the report of the coming of D'Anville's fleet to destroy New 
England was received, the prayer of the minister, the scholarly Thomas 
Prince, for deliverance from the threatened calamity was interrupted by a 
"sudden gust of wind which shook the church with such violence as to cause 
the windows to rattle in their casings," when the minister paused a moment 
then resumed his supplication, beseeching the Almighty "to cause that wind 
to confound the purposes of the enemy." And a tempest did arise and the 
fleet was wrecked on its way ofif the coast of Nova Scotia. It was the retell- 
ing of this incident by Everett W. Burdett in his excellent brochure, "History 
of the Old South Meetinghouse in Boston," issued at the time of the struggle, 
in the 'seventies, for the preservation of the historic building, that inspired 
Longfellow to write his "Ballad of the French Fleet." 

And what a struggle the "Saving of the Okl South" was ! It is now a 
familiar story to old Bostonians. The Saving was finally accomplished, after 
the dismantling of the building had actually begun, through the constant and 
skillful leadership of a small and faithful body of citizens, and set aside as a 
memorial. The Fire of 1872 almost reached it, property Ijeing burned all 
around it on two sides. After the Fire it was utilized for the Post Office. 
It is now open as a museum of relics of the Revolution and Province times. 




<-L.\lRAl, CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BLRK?:i,KV AND NKWBVRY STREETS 

It succeeds the first meetinghouse of the Society, which stood on Winter Street. The present 

church was built in 1867 in advanced Gothic style, and its spire of two hundred 

and thirty-six feet is one of the highest in the cit\- 



176 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



His Eminence, ^\'illiam, Cardinal O'Connell, is one of the great sons of 
Massachusetts, who has Isrought lasting fame and honor to his native state. 
Born in the city of Lowell, in 1859, he has, by sheer force of his wonderful 
character, within the space of his own lifetime, become an international fig- 
ure of prominence and of influence. In his own person, he has won for Bos- 
ton universal recognition as a principality in the kingdom of God's Church 




HIS EMIXENXE, WILLIAM CARDINAL O CO.NNELL 



upon earth, and throughout the ecclesiastical world, thanks to the wonderful 
qualities of mind and heart of Cardinal O'Connell, Boston stands upon the 
same footing as Vienna, Paris, London, and other big centres of the Catholic 
world today. 

It is doubtful whether there is any other single individual in Massachu- 
setts today who has won such universal and high esteem for the city of 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



i: 



iMSlll II) 



Boston, as has CanJinal ( )\ onnell, tliu first yrcat Cardinal Arcl 
of this historic See. 

It is now aluiut ten years since Cardinal O'Cnnnell became Primate of 
New England. His stndies, his life, his activities, previous to that time, had 
led him to the different great centres of the world, where his heart and mind 




ROi\IA.\ CAiHULIC CATHKUKAL OF THE HOLY C ROS 
WASHINGTON AND MALDEN STREETS 



were enriched with the stores of wisdom, experience, and histories of great 
men, and of historic places seen and studied at close ranee 

A student in Rome, and later Rector of the American College in the 
Eternal City, Monsignor O'Connell was in a position to observe, to study and 
to compare the best that every country has to offer, at that perennial fountain- 



178 THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



head to which, as to its original source, all the world's greatness periodically 

returns. 

As an ambassador from the Pope of Rome to the Mikado of Japan at 
the close of the Russian-Japanese War, Monsignor O'Connell proved himself 
an accomplished diplomat, and in an assemblage of international diplomatists 
easily took his place as a commanding figure. 

Whether in Rome, or Tokio, Vienna, Paris, London, or Montreal, where 
a great international congress of representatives from the entire world was 
held a few years ago. Cardinal O'Connell has always secured the very highest 
recognition, and has brought lasting fame, honor and esteem to the city of 
Boston, of which he is the great ecclesiastical leader. 

On assuming charge of the archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal O'Connell 
returned to his native state, not onl}- with his heart and mind richly stored for 
the benefit and progress of the people, Init also with a most powerful deter- 
mination and a strong desire to consume every energy for the betterment and 
for the happiness of his fellow citizens. 

In perhaps the most classical of his scholarly addresses, delivered on the 
occasion of the centennial of the diocese of Boston, Cardinal O'Connell tracetl 
step by step the position of Catholic and Puritan, back to the beginning, and 
by a quick survey, contrasting the real and actual achievements of Ijoth Cath- 
olic and Puritan upon the historic soil of New England, showed that Puri- 
tanical false theories of the Catholic Church were amply disproved by splendid 
Catholic achievements, by deeds of Catholic loyalty and valor, and by the 
teachings of Catholic truth and justice. Cardinal O'Connell, in that memo- 
rable address, pointed out the way by which the yawning gulf between Catho- 
lics and Protestants might be filled up, and for his part offered to co-operate 
in every way that would make for harmonious, peaceful dwelling side by side 
of all the various peoples that make up this country, upon our friendly and 
hospitable shores. It would be an interesting story to relate the many tributes 
from the descendants of the old Puritans that this first act of the new Arch- 
bishop of Boston called forth. The>- realized that for a century or more they 
had Ijeen living side by side with a people whose virtues they would not see. 
But, thanks to the wonderful efllorts of the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston, 
as a leader of his priests and people in this historic Puritan New England, the 
chasm is gradually filling up. Wonderful progress has already been made, 
and the future is full of hope and pnuuise of happier days in the history of 
Boston through the mutual understanding of all her children, luade possible to 
a very great extent through the teaching and through the infiuence of Cardinal 
O'Connell. We are too close to Cardinal O'Connell and to his times to say what 
the true magnitude of his influence has been in enhancing the name and the 
prestige of his beloved Boston. But we feel quite sure that in the years to come, 
when the history of Boston shall be re-WTitten in the true perspective of time 
and of results, the name of Cardinal O'Connell will rank as one of the greatest 
that Massachusetts has ever produced. 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 



ctions of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER XII 




THE MUNICIPALIT\^ 



Old Systems of City Goverxmext Reviewed — Revisixg the City Charter — Note- 
worthy Chaxges Ixstituted by Notable Mayors 




N May i, 1822, the town of 
Ijostiin Ijecanie a city. The 
cliange from the pure de- 
miicracy of government by 
town meeting to a repre- 
sentative, or delegated form 
of giivernment, liad hecimie an ahsohite ne- 
cessity by reason of the growth of the com- 
munitv. Boston is now a municipality nf 
seven hundred and fort_\'-tive tlmusand, fnur 
hundred and thirty-nine inhabitants, and the 
nucleus of a great metropolitan population 
of one million, four huntlred and twenty- 
three thousand, four hundred and twenty- 
nine, comprising thirty-nine municipalities, 
organized for common administrative pur- 
jjoses into four metropolitan districts. 

Boston, as a municipality, is now gov- 
erned bv a mavor and numerous executive 
departments, for the greater part under his 
direct control ; a legislative liranch consist- 
ing of a City Council of nine members serv- 
ing terms of three \ears each, three mem- 
bers elected each year; a City Clerk and 
City Messenger elected by the City Council ; 
a School Committee of five members elected 
for terms of three years, two elected two 
successive years, and one the third year; a 
Police Commissioner appointed by the Gov- 
ernor of the Commonwealth ; various at- 
tendants upon tile City Council, including a 
Clerk of Committees; the Boston Transit 
Commission, appointed partly liy the Gov- 
ernor and partly by the Mayor, for the con- 
struction of subways and other features of 
publicly owned transit facilities; numerous 
nn'nor officers such as constables, weighers 



of coal, measurers of grain, sealers of 
weights and measures and others. There 
are also various ci^imtv officers, including 
the Judges of the Courts, Sherift', Clerks of 
Court, Register of Probate, etc. .\ unique 
feature is a Finance Commission, appointed 
li\- the Governor to investigate and report 
ui)on the financial activities of the niunici- 
])ality. An Art Commission, the first to be 
Constituted for an American city, passes 
upon the merit and location of works of art 
designed for public places; if recjuested by 
the ]\Iayor or City Council, it mav also pass 
upon designs for iniblic Iniildings, 1)ri(lges 
and other structures. 

The original citv charter, as well as all 
other charters for Massachusetts cities, until 
a comparatively recent period, provided for 
a liicameral legislative branch. In fact, the 
entire nnuiicipal system, which thus became 
traditional, was based upon the nn'staken 
assumittion that the city, as a political entity, 
demanded to be governed in practically the 
same way as a nation or a State, the main 
difference between them being one of mag- 
nitude. Ever}' citv government thus became 
a State government in miniature. 

For a long period the mayors of Boston 
had comparatively little power Ijeyond that 
of passing upon the enactments of the legis- 
lative branch either by approval or veto. 
The Mayor's appointments were subject to 
confirmation b\' the upper liranch of the 
City Council : the Board and Aldermen. In 
the earlier days the Mayor's appointing 
]>o\ver was of small moment in comparison 
with what it later liecame; the executive and 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



180 



administrative lunctiuii? were largely in the 
hands of the City Council, the conduct of 
the various departments being chiefly in 
charge of committees of the Coimcil. 
While, therefore, our city governments were 
ostensibly based upon the principle also pro- 
fessedly followed by the Federal Govern- 
ment and the government of the various 
States of the Union: the separation of the 
executive and legislative functions. — in fact 
the two were so blended by means of the 
power over the Mayor's appointments ex- 
erted by the Board of Aldermen, through 
possession of the right of confirmation and 
rejection, as to make the upper legislative 
body actually a part of the executive branch. 
Thereby responsibility for executive acts 
was so confused and diluted as to be prac- 
tically destroyed. It was long before this 
fundamental evil became apparent ; the com- 
mimity was so small and the population so 
homogeneous that abuses which later be- 
came glaring did not develop to any marked 
extent. The Mayor was usually a promi- 
nent citizen of high standing. A Citizens' 
Convention customarily nominated candi- 
dates for the Board of Aldermen — com- 
monly well knoA\Ti business or professional 
men. At present, however, the city elections 
were conducted along the lines of the na- 
tional parties. 

Many improvements in the methods of 
mimicipal government have been made, and 
these are to a great extent automatical!}- 
operated in the direction of a higher 
efficiency. 

With the growth of the city and the in- 
crease of mimicipal functions the city char- 
ter has been gradually revised from time to 
time. The greatest and most radical changes 
that had taken place up to that time were 
those adopted in the eighth decade of the 
nineteenth century, the 'seventies, when 
either the great emergencies that arose, or 
the increase of activities, made it imperative 
to replace the system of administration by 
committees of the City Coimcil in charge of 
the various departments with a system of 
commissions appointed by the Mayor and, 
for the greater part, composed of salaried 
officials. Thus the great fire of November, 



1872, made necessary the reorganization of 
the Fire Department; at about the same 
time a virulent epidemic of smallpox led to 
the organization of a Board of Health; the 
creation of a new water-supply from Sud- 
bury River, with its vast engineering opera- 
tions, made a water-board essential; the 
creation of a great system of public parks 
demanded the appointment of a Board of 
Park Commissioners with large powers and 
responsibilities — the latter remaining an un- 
salaried body upon which leading citizens 
were glad to ser\-e for the sake of their 
capacity for public service until within a 
few years, when the board was reconstituted 
with a salaried chairman. 

The administration of the police also be- 
came so important as to need the organiza- 
tion of a Board of Police Commissioners. 
And finally the danger of entrusting this 
function to corrupt partisan control became 
so great that the appointment of its mem- 
Ijers ( it is now a single-headed body ) was. 
transferred from the Mayor to the Gov- 
ernor of the Commonwealth. Following is 
a list of the Mayors of Boston from the 
Ijeginning of the city government to the 
present day: — 

1822 — John Phillips, one year. 

1823 — Josiah Ouincy, six years. 

1829 — Harrison Gray Otis, three years. 

1832 — Charles Wells, two years. 

1834 — Theodore L}"man, Jr., two years. 

1836 — Samuel T. Armstrong, one year. 

1837 — Samuel A. Eliot, three years. 

1840 — Jonathan Chapman, three years. 

1843 — Martin Brimmer, two years. 

1845 — Thomas A. Davis, one year. 

1846 — ^Josiah Ouincy, Jr., three years. 

1849 — ^John P. Bigelow, three years. 

1852 — Benjamin Seaver, three years. 

1854 — ^Jerome \'. C. Smith, two years. 

1856 — Alexander H. Rice, two jears. 

1858 — Frederick W. Lincoln, Jr., three 
years. 

1 86 1 — Joseph M. Wightman, two years. 

1863 — Frederick \\'. Lincoln (again) 
four years. 

1867 — Otis Xorcross, one year. 

1868 — Nathaniel B. ShurtlefF, three years. 




i:J-:--J . /- l^-^'.^-r.. _irck-iUCl 



CITY HALL ASS EX 



This addition to the City Hall is of the steel-frame office building type. Its fa(;ade, 

»-ith four giant fluted engaged columns, supporting in the attic 

story four allegorical female figures, has a 

fine efltect of dignity 



182 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



187 1 — William O. Gaston, two years. 

1873 — Henry L. Pierce, one year. 

1874 — Samuel C. Coljh, three years. 

1877 — Frederic O. Prince, one year. 

1878 — Henry L. Pierce (again) one year. 

1879 — Frederic O. Prince (again) three 
years. 

1882 — Samuel G. Green, one year. 

1883 — Albert Palmer, one year. 

1884 — Augustus P. Martin, one year. 

1885 — Hugh O'Brien, three years. 

1889 — Thomas N. Hart, two years. 

1891 — Nathan Matthews, Jr., four years. 

1895 — Edwin U. Curtis, one year. 

1896 — Josiah Ouincy, four years (two 
terms ) . 

1900 — Thomas N. Hart (again) two 
years. 

1902 — Patrick A. Collins, three and three- 
quarters years (two terms). 

1906 — John F. Fitzgerald, two years. 

1908 — George A. Hil)])ard, two years. 

1910 — John F. Fitzgerald (again) four 
years (one term). 

19 14 — James M. Curley. 

The foregoing list includes many notable 
names. As a rule, with few exceptions, the 
ma\'ors have lieen "leading citizens" — men 
of high stantling in the community, both 
socially and in public affairs — many of them 
chosen for the reason of being prominent 
business men of sound sense. Few among 
them have been "politicians" in the rather 
uncomplimentary American sense of the 
term, although often active in political af- 
fairs. From the early days, however, there 
have been radical differences as to the con- 
duct of municipal affairs ; there have been 
many spirited contests, although issues were 
seldom drawn along national party lines un- 
til into the 'eighties. 

The most hotly contested city election was 
that of 1844. Although "knownothingism" 
as such did not come to the front in Massa- 
chusetts politics until more than ten years 
later, there had been a steadily gaining senti- 
ment against the foreign elements that were 
becoming so numerous in the population. 
Hence in that year a "Native American" 
party had become so numerous as finally to 



elect its candidate. In those days a plural- 
ity was not sufficient for election, so eight 
ballotings took place before a decision was 
reached ; it was not until Fel:)ruary 22 that 
Thomas A. Davis was elected mayor. 
Mayor Davis died in office, and Josiah 
Ouinc}-, Jr., was elected for the un- 
expired term by the Citv Council, the 
citizens re-electing him for the regular term 
following. 

Harrison Gray Otis, the third Mayor, had 
been Speaker of the Massachusetts House 
of Representatives, President of the Sen- 
ate, Representative in Congress and Sena- 
tor from Massachusetts before becoming 
Ma\'or. Samuel T. Armstrong was Lieu- 
tenant-Governor before serving as Mayor. 
Mayors Rice, Pierce, Collins, Fitzgerald 
and Curley have represented Boston in 
Congress. 

Two Mayors later became Governors of 
the Commonwealth : Alexander IT. Rice and 
William O. Gaston. Four Mayors were 
])hysicians : Doctors Jerome \ . C. Smith, 
Nathaniel 13. Shurtleft", Frederic O. Prince 
and Samuel G. Green. Dr. Smith was 
chosen only after another close election, 
three ballotings having been necessary. Dr. 
Smith was candidate of the Native Ameri- 
can party; Benjamin Seaver, up for a fourth 
term, was the Whig candidate, and a Tem- 
perance party supported Jacob Sleeper. The 
charges of administrative inefficiency result- 
ing from the great fire of 1872, together 
with the city's defective sanitation that led 
to the smallpox epidemic of that year, 
caused another close election. William O. 
Gaston, the Democratic candidate, was de- 
clared re-elected on the face of the returns, 
but a recount made the Citizens' candidate, 
Henry L. Pierce, Mayor by a plurality of 
seventy-nine votes. Six former Mayors are 
living at the present writing : Dr. Samuel G. 
Green, Thomas N. Hart, Nathan Matthews, 
Edwin U. Curtis, Josiah Ouincy, John F. 
Fitzgerald. 

Changes and improvements effected by 
the influence of Mayors have, as a rule, been 
due to the forceful and constructive person- 
alities of the men then at the head of munic- 





3. 


o 




a! 


CJ 












■^ 


c 


c 


a 






bO 




c 


o 


*^ 


O 






o 


_a 








"y^ 




g 


fU 


5 


"a 


o 


(U 


ry^ 



Bo 



rt 


O 


C 


U 


o 


^_, 


CJ 




[/; 


3 








£ 


C 


-a 


o 


OJ 






U5 

O 




^ 


OJ 


U5 


j: 



u ^- 






o 



U 



o J 






184 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ipal affairs more than to the power actually 
exercised by them. The many other notable 
■changes have been due to outside influences 
upon legislation and the shaping of public 
opinion. At times the lack of vision, of 
constructive ability, in the city government, 
caused great opportunities to be missed. 
For instance, the city government was so 
inert that for years no decisive step was 
taken to abate the intolerable nuisance aris- 
ing from the Back Bay flats. The great 
Back Bay improvement might easily have 
been undertaken by the city itself, Init it re- 
mained for the Commonwealth to deal ef- 
fectively with it at last, and reap a mag- 
nificent financial harvest from the filling and 
the marketing of the new lands. 

As early as its second year as a city, Bos- 
ton had the fortune to have, in Josiah 
Quincy, the second Mayor, a great person- 
ality, far-seeing, and possessed of construc- 
tive imagination. He entered upon his 
office in full sympath\- with that clause of 
the city charter that defined the powers and 
■duties of the Mayor, enjoining upon him "to 
collect and communicate all information, 
and recommend all such measures as may 
tend to improve the city finances, police, 
health, security, cleanliness, comfort and or- 
nament." In his inaugural address his 
faith in the future of Boston was aflirmed 
in these words : "The destinies of the city 
of Boston are of a nature too plain to be 
denied or misconceived. The prognostics of 
its future greatness are written on the face 
of nature too legibly and too indelibly to be 
mistaken. The indications are apparent 
from the location of our citv, from its har- 
bor, and from its relative position among 
rival towns and cities ; above all, from the 
■character of its inhabitants and the singular 
degree of enterprise and intelligence which 
are diffused through every class of its 
citizens." 

This optimism, which found expression in 
the important constructive works under- 
taken at Mayor Ouincy's initiative, was well 
justified by the steady growth of Boston 
from that day to this, when it has become 
the centre of a great metropolitan popula- 
tion. Josiah Quincy well deserved the honor 



of the statue that stands in front of the City 
Hall; after his six years as Mayor he repre- 
sented Boston in Congress, and later was for 
man}'- years president of Harvard College. 
Under his administration a city debt was 
incurred amounting to six hundred and 
thirty-seven thousand dollars, all resulting 
from operations which obtained for Boston 
the New Faneuil Hall Market, the City 
Wharf, and land north of the new block of 
stores on North Market Street ; also, free of 
encumbrance, the lands west of Charles and 
Pleasant Streets — a portion of the latter 
ultimately set aside for the Public Garden 
and the remaining portion marketed at a 
profit. These properties were estimated 
conservatively at values amounting to a total 
of seven hundred and seven thousand dol- 
lars. The "Ouincy Market" improvement 
was a magnificent enterprise, involving the 
construction of six new streets over an area 
of flats and docks and resulting in a monu- 
mental develc)])ment that even todav remains 
impressive, altliDugh the handsome uniform 
granite faqades of the stores opposite the 
long granite market-house on South and 
North Market Streets have been in late 
years unsymmetrically altered to meet the 
demands of trade. 

One of the most important of Mayor 
Ouincy's recommendations, urging an ade- 
quate water supply both for public health 
and convenience, and for protection against 
fire, failed of realization. The Jamaica 
Pond Water Company was furnishing a 
small supply, introduced in 1795 and flow- 
ing in primitive fashion through pine logs 
bored and joined like pump logs. This cor- 
poration continued to serve a limited dis- 
trict for something like ninety years, until 
the extinction of its privileges through the 
acquisition of Jamaica Pond for park pur- 
poses. It was the influence of the Jamaica 
Pond Water Company and of other inter- 
ests that sought the privilege of supplying 
water, together with a popular fear of in- 
curring a great indebtedness for the pur- 
pose, that delayed the introduction of a 
public supply until the administration of the 
second Mayor Ouincy, Josiah Ouincy, Jr., 
in 1848. 



TTIE ROOK OF BOSTON 



1S5 



Not until the aclniinistration of Nathan 
Mattliews, Jr.. for the four years beginning 
\vith 1 89 1, did a Mayor of Boston exert so 
profound an influence upon the development 
<if the city as did the first Josiah Ouincy. 
^Ir. Matthews, an able lawyer and a com- 
paratively young man, although active in 
politics, came to the office an unknown <|uan- 
tity. But he had studied abroad and had 
travelled extensively, and his observation of 
progressive nninicipal gMvernmcnt in (ier- 



transit. The report of the advisory body 
resulted in the appointment nf the Bos- 
ton Transit Commission to j)lan and con- 
struct subways, tunnels, bridges, ami other 
features of a transit system — the Treniont 
Street Subwa}", the first in any American 
city built for local transit jnirposes. The 
question of terminals fur the railroads en- 
tering Boston was also considered bv the 
jireliminary transit commission. The ini- 
prdvement of the Charles River was an- 




SUMMER STREET. A RETAIL SECTION OF THE CITY 



many had taught him much. His compre- 
hensive recommendations for improve- 
ments, made in his inaugural address, were 
fairly startling. One conservative critic 
remarked that it was all very well to suggest 
such things, but it would take a generation 
to carry them into effect. Yet by the end 
of the year they had all been favorably acted 
upon and the legislati(jn desired had been 
.secured I A Transit Commission was ap- 
pointed to study questions of rapid 



other subject recommended by Mayor Mat- 
thews; the Charles River Commission, an 
investigating board apjiointed to study the 
problems involved, was the result. This led 
eventually to the creation of another great 
Iiianning and constructing board, the 
Charles River Basin Commission, whose 
work, following the general lines of the 
Alster I'asin at Hamburg, has resulted in a 
great mcjuumental improvement. Ma\-or 
Matthews also brought about the constitu- 



186 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



tion of a Board of Survey for Boston, to 
undertake a general planning of highways 
for undeveloped areas. Great steps forward 
in the development of parks were taken 
under his administration. He was so 
deeply interested in the work of the Park 
Commission that he attended the meetings 
as regularlv as if he were a member of the 
board; under his influence the system was 
assured completion as planned by Frederick 
Law Olmsted. He also took a deep interest 
in the project for a metropolitan park sys- 
tem, and his advocacy of the project was 
one of the determining factors in securing 
the desired legislation. 

Josiah Ouincy, a great-grandson of Bos- 
ton's second Mayor, was the third Mayor 
of that name — a circumstance unprece- 
dented in the history of American munici- 
palities. His administration was also 
marked by a magnificent constructive enter- 
prise, the consolidation of the railroad ter- 
minals on the south side of the city that 
resulted in the building of the South 
station, the city unilertaking the laying out 
of the new streets called for and assessing 
betterments upon property benefited l)y the 
improvement. 

About 1908 a Finance Commission 
was authorized b\- the Legislature, with 
large powers of investigation and rec- 
ommendation. Under the chairmanship of 
Nathan Matthews, Jr., the former Mayor, 
such serious conditions were revealed that 
radical changes in the form of the city gov- 
ernment were shown to be necessary. A 
new city charter was the result. The execu- 
tive and legislative functions were rigidly 
separated. The Ma>or was given a large 
responsibility. He was to be elected for a 
term of four years. Provision for recall at 
the end of two years was made, Ixit essen- 
tial to recall was a majority of the entire 
electorate, instead of a majority of those 
voting. Recall was thus made very dif- 
ficult. The "short ballot" was a feature 
of the new charter, the only names 
upon the l:)allot being the candidates 
for three vacancies in the City Coun- 
cil, for vacancies in the School Board, 



and (once in four years) the candidates for 
Mayor. The Mayor sul)mits the annual 
budget to the City Council, which is em- 
powered to reduce items, Init not to increase 
them. The Council consists of nine mem- 
liers, three retiring each year. The Council 
has no pt.wer to review the Mayor's ap- 
pointments. But since it was felt that in 
the interest of the public the ]Mayor should 
not have absolute power of appointment and 
removal, the reviewing function was en- 
trusted to the Civil Service Commission. 
Experience indicates that this would prob- 
a1)ly have been better had the power of con- 
firmation and rejection been entrusted to a 
special board, judicial in function, as might 
be the case were it appointed by the Su- 
preme Court. At present a Governor may 
be tempted to make the Civil Service board 
complaisant to a Mayor who may be of its 
own political complexion, notwithstanding 
the provision forliickling appointments for 
political motives — as instanced in confirma- 
tion of recent appointments to offices which, 
it was provided, should be filled by men pro- 
fessionally qualified l>y technical training. 
In the new charter, part}' designations on 
the ballot are forbidden. The School Board 
was untouched, having been reduced in 
membership from a large to a small number 
by previous legislation. The short ballot 
having proved so satisfactory in this in- 
stance, it was decided to extend the prin- 
ciple to the Cit}' Council. Here it has again 
worked well, apparently for the reason that, 
as in the case of members of the School 
- pjoard, the office of Councillor lieing with- 
out patronage and having now no voice in 
determining the Mayor's appointments, has 
little attractiveness for predatory politicians. 
A novel feature of the Charter is its pro- 
.vision of a permanent Finance Commission 
with large powers of investigation as to the 
conduct of municipal finances, but with no 
provision for making eft'ective its recom- 
mendations. The puljlicity attendant upon 
this ventilating function proves wholesome. 
In the cities of Great liritain the office of 
Mavor is purely honorar_\-, and is conferred 



TMR HOOK OF BOSTON- 



IS? 



as a matter nf social distinctiijii upijn a ])er- 
S(jn who can dn the iKumrs of the post liand- 
somely, — the Cit\', i>v l"(]\vn Clerk, being 
the true executive heat! of the municipality 



just as the (general manaj^er of a i^reat busi- 
ness corpiiration is chosen liv the I'.nard of 
Directors. In America the conduct of 
I)rivate business is based upon experience 




SCOLLAY SQUARE OF 1910 

AT THE JUN'CriON OF TREMONT AND COURT STREETS, CORXIIII.L AND TREMONT ROW 

A CENTRAL POINT FROM WHICH THE NORTHERN PARTS 

OF THE CITY ARE REACHED 



and holding office by virtue of fitness and 
experience. In Germany the Alavor, or 
Biirgermeistcr. is chosen by the Cit}- Coun- 
cil to manage the cit\'s business by reason 
of his training and experience in the work, 



and fitness. In our even more important 
l)ul)lic business ain- man without exjierience 
(ir fitness mav l)e eligible to nccupN' an\' 
jjosition, however res])(insil)le, at Cdinuiand 
of the electorate. 



188 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




GOVERNOR SAMUEL W. MCCALL 



Governor Samuel W. McCall was born 
in East Providence. Pa., February 28, 
1 85 1, and was educated at the New Hamp- 
ton, N. H., Academy and Dartmouth Col- 
lege. After admission to the Bar, he became 
interested in politics and was elected to the 
lower house of the Massachusetts Legisla- 
ture. His public service was made memo- 
rable by securing the passage of the first 
corrupt practices bill ever passed by any 
legislative body in America. He was 
elected to Congress in 1892 and for twenty 
years took a leading part in the most im- 



portant legislation of the country. He was 
elected Governor of Massachusetts in No- 
vember, 191 5. Dartmouth, Oberlin, Tufts 
Colleges and the University of Maine con- 
ferred the LL.D. degree upon him. He 
is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, 
the Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternities and 
the leading clubs of Boston, Washington 
and New York. He is the author of many 
addresses and magazine articles, the lives 
of Thomas B. Reed and Thaddeus Stevens, 
and has lectured at Columbia and Yale Uni- 
versities and Bowdoin College. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



189 




EX-GOVERNOR JOHN L. BATES 



Hun. John L. Bates, ex-Governor, was 
l)orn at North Easton, September i8, 1859. 
He was educated in the pnl)Hc schools of 
Taunton and Chelsea, the Boston Latin 
School and the Boston University. He 
graduated A.B. from the college in 1882, 
and LL.B. from law school, 1885. Taught 
school in 1882 and 1883 and was admitted 
to the bar in 1885. He was a member of 
tlie Boston Common Covuicil in 1891-1892, 
and represented East Boston in the lower 
house of the Legislature from 1894 to 1899, 
being Speaker the last three years. He was 



Lieutenant-Giivernnr in 1900, 1901, 1902, 
and Governor in 1903- 1904, since which 
time he has been actively engaged in legal 
w(_irk. In 1903 W'esleyan College conferretl 
the LL.D. upon him. He is president of 
the Board of Trustees of Boston University, 
director of the Chelsea Trust Co., the Co- 
lumbia Trust Co., and the United States 
Trust Co., vice-president and trustee of the 
Wilde Savings Bank, and president and di- 
rector of the W'innisimmett Co. He is a 
luember of the Masonic fraternity, Odd Fel- 
lows, and United Order of I'ilgrim Fathers. 



190 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



WILLIAM B. DE LAS CASAS 

^'isitors to Boston are invariably attracted 
l)y the picturesqueness of tlie Ijeach resorts, 
jiarixs and bridges constructed and main- 




WILLIAM B. DE LAS CASAS 



tained 1iy the Metropolitan Park Commis- 
sion, and the successful work of that body 
is largely due to the persistent efforts of 
\Villiam B. de las Casas, chairman of the 
Board, who has labored zealously since its 
creation, for the beautification of various 
points about Boston. In 1892, Governor 
Russell appointed Mr. de las Casas, with 
Hon. Charles Francis Adams and Philip A. 
Chase, to the preliminary Metropolitan Park 
Commission, to report on the advisability of 
a system of metropolitan parks. In 1893, he 
was appointed a member of the permanent 
commission and was elected its chairman in 
1895. He has been re-appointed a member 
and re-elected chairman ever since, anti 
under his direction most of the beautiful 
work, that stands as a monument to the un- 
ceasing efforts of Mr. de las Casas and his 
associates, has been completed. Mr. de las 
Casas was born in Maiden, March 3, 1857. 
His parents were Francisco Beltran de las 



Casas, a noted teacher of art and languages, 
who was born near Tarragona, Spain, 
and Elizabeth Carder ( Pedrick) de las 
Casas, whose ancestors were jjrominent 
among the early settlers of Marblehead. He 
graduated A.B. from Harvard in 1879 ^""i 
then taught school for two years in New 
York, after which he entered the Harvard 
Law School, obtaining the LL.B. degree and 
being admitted to the Bar in 1885. He be- 
gan practice at once and was largely en- 
gaged in the management of trust and other 
estates and in realty development in Maiden. 
He is a member of the Laiion clul) of 
Boston, Massachusetts Horticultural Society 
and vice-president of El Club Espanol. He 
is president of the Maiden LIniversity Club, 
a nienil)er of the Maiden Historical Society, 
trustee of the Maiden Hospital, of which he 
was one of the founders and a warden, and 
for many years a vestryman of St. Paul's 
church of ]\Ialden. 

JOHN A. DUGGAN 
John A. Duggan was born in South Bos- 
ton, April 5, 1888, and is descended from 
okl New England ancestry. The family 
originated in 
Waterford, Count\- 
Waterford, Ireland, 
and the American 
branch was estab- 
lished here in 1766. 
H i s great - great- 
grandfather was at 
one time proprietor 
of the old Hancock 
Tavern in Dock 
Square and at dif- 
ferent times enter- 
tained General La- 
fayette and other 
noted men. Mr. 
Duggan was edu- 
cated in the public schools and was ap- 
pi:)inted to the position of Constable in 19 10. 
His work is of a general character, being 
mostly civil processes. His office is in 
the Tremont Building, and he resides at 90 
Welles Avenue, Dorchester. 




JOHN A. DUGGAN 



11 II-: IU)()K OF BOSTON 



101 



HON. DA\ ID 1. WALSH 




EX-GOVEKNOK DAVID I. WALSH 



Hon. David I. Walsh, ex-novernor of 
Massachusetts, was born in Leominster, 
Mass., November ii, 1872. He graduated 
M'ith honor from the Clinton High School 
1890, the Holy Cross College 1893, and the 
Boston University Law School 1897. The 
degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him 
by the Holy Cross College in 1914. After 
his admission to the Bar, Mr. Walsh became 
a leading practitioner in Worcester County. 
In Politics he is a Democrat. Was elected a 
member of the Massachusetts House of 
Representatives 1890 and re-elected in 1891. 



Mr. Walsh was elected Lieutenant-Governor 
in 1913 and was twice chosen Governor of 
Massachusetts for 19 14 and 19 15. 

His administration was noted for its 
many progressive policies, especially those 
acts for the promotion of the public health 
and the advancement of popular education. 
The establishment by the State of a Cor- 
respondence School for Working People, 
and the great improvements made in the leg- 
islation for workmen's compensation are 
cases in jioint. Mr. Walsh has offices in 
the Trenicjut I'.uilding. 



192 



THE BOOK Op- BOSTON 




JOHN F. DEVER 

John F. Dever, Clerk of Committees of 
the City Council, was born in Boston, May 
22, 1853. He filled several positions before 

becoming a clerk in 
the office of Reg- 
istrar of Voters, 
when his active 
])olitical life began. 
In 18S0 he was 
elected to the Leg- 
islature and was re- 
elected in 1 88 1 , 
viiluntarily retiring 
at the end of the 
two terms. In 1885 
iMayor OT)rien se- 
lected him as his 
Chief Clerk, and in 
i88g he became as- 
joHN F. DEVER sociatcd with the 

New England Piano Co. He was elected 
Alderman from the loth District in 1892, 
was reelected the following year, and was 
then chosen Alderman at large for 1894 
and '95. He served in that capacity until 
1896, when he was elected Clerk of Com- 
mittees. Mr. Dever is Past Grand Knight 
of Mount Pleasant Council, K. of C, Past 
Chief Ranger of Mount Pleasant Court, 
Catholic Order of Foresters, president of 
the Roxbury Bachelor Clul), and charter 
member and ex-president of the Clover 
Club. 

ARTHUR S. JOHNSON 
Arthur S. Johnson, who has devoted his 
entire life to the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation and various forms of philanthropic 
work, was born in Boston June 4, 1863. 
He attended Mr. Noble's school, where he 
received a preparatory education, and then 
entered Harvard College, from which he 
graduated in 1885. Immediately upon 
leaving college he became interested in the 
work of the Boston Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, of which he has been a 
director for thirty years, and for the past 
twenty years its president. In addition to 



this interest Mr. Johnson is president of 
the City Missionary Society, president and 
member of the Board of Managers of the 
New England Home for Little Wanderers, 
president American Congregational Asso- 
ciation ; trustee. General Theological Li- 
l)rarv, the Massachusetts Bilile Society; 
president, Massachusetts Temperance So- 
ciety, and director of the Workingmen's 
Loan Association. Mr. Johnson is de- 
scended from old New England stock. His 
residence is at 253 Commonwealth Avenue. 

HON. JAMES DONOVAN 
James Donovan, city clerk, was born in 
Boston, May 28, 1859. He was educated in 
the public schools and began his career in a 
mercantile line. Be- 
coming interested 
in politics at an 
early period, he 
filled many posi- 
tions of importance 
and has been the 
friend and adviser 
of Governors and 
Mayors. In 1881, 
Mr. Donovan was 
elected to the Com- 
mon Council and 
he also served in 
the Massachusetts 
House of Repre- 

. ■• J- HON. JAMES DONOVAN 

sentatives fro m 

1884-1888. He was a member of the Sen- 
ate in 1889-90-91, and was a member of 
the Executive Council 1892-94. Mr. Dono- 
van was a delegate at large to the National 
Democratic Convention in 1896, and held 
the office of Superintendent of Lamps under 
]\Iavor Ouincy. Mayor Collins appointed 
him Superintendent of Streets, and he has 
been secretary and chairman of the Demo- 
cratic City Committee. He is now City 
Clerk. I\Ir. Donovan is a member of the 
Boston City Club, the Young Men's Demo- 
cratic Club and the Irish Charitable Society. 




THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



193: 




H;JN. WILLIAM S. MCNARY 



Hull. William S. McXary was horn in 
Ahington, Mass., in 1S63 and was educated 
in that city and the English High School, 
Boston. Air. McNary was a member of the 
Boston City Council and both branches of 
the state legislature; also served as secretary 
and chairman of the Democratic State Com- 
mittee. He was elected to Congress in 1902 
from the loth Massachusetts district, serv- 
ing for two terms, and retiring in 1907 to 
form the Drake and Hersey Conipam , 
furniture dealers. He also aided in form- 



ing the Hanover Trust Ciinii)an\- in 1915,. 
and is Chairman of its Board of Directors. 
He was appointed Harbor and Land Com- 
missioner by Governor Foss in 1912, was 
chairman of that Board for four years and 
was associate member of the Boston Port 
Directors for two years. Mr. McNary was. 
appointed in i()i6 by Governor McCall as. 
a memlier of the new Waterways and Public 
Lands Commission. Mr. McNary married 
in 1892, Miss Albertine A. Martin and has. 
twci children. Helen and William S., Jr. 



194 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



HENRY L. WALKER 
A familiar figure in the Courts of Cam- 
Ijridge is Henry L. Walker, Deputy Sheriff 
of Middlesex County, whose legal business 
is extensive. 




HENRY L. WALKER 



Deputy Sheriff Walker was born in Bos- 
ton, October i, 1875, and was educated in 
the public schools of Cambridge. At an 
early age he became clerk to Deputy Sheriff 
Richards, a position he filled for sixteen 
years. For the past eight years he has been 
Deputy Sheriff and as such is connected 
"vvith the criminal courts of Middlesex 
county. He has an office in the Pemberton 
building and has been actively engaged in 
legal work around Pemberton Square for 
the past twenty-five years. Mr. Walker is a 
member of the Benevolent Order of Elks, 
the Owls, Sons of Veterans, the New Eng- 
Jand Order of Protection and the Knights 
and Ladies of Honor. He is a son of the 
late Horace H. and Mary Ann (Pritchard) 
Walker. His father was a veteran of the 
'Civil War and was engaged in many of the 
notable sea and land engagements during 
the long struggle to put down insurrection. 
Mr. Walker is married and lives in Med ford. 




CHARLES H. FISH 
Charles H. Fish, Consulting Engineer, 
was born in Taunton, Mass., and began his 
manufacturing career as assistant superin- 
tendent of the 
Amoskeag M f g • 
Co., Manchester, 
N. H. ; later he was 
agent for the Chic- 
opee Mfg. Co., and 
then entered the en- 
gineering service 
of the U. S. Gov- 
ernment. He was 
subsetjuentlv agent 
or general manager 
of the C o c h e c o [ 
Mfg. Co., Dover, ' 
N. H., B. B. & R. 
Knight, Provi- 
dence, R. ].. and charles h. fish 
the Garner Print Works and Bleachery, New 
York. Since 19 12 he has been a consulting 
engineer in Boston, with offices at 85 Dev- 
onshire Street. ]\Ir. Fish is secretary and 
treasurer of the National Association of 
Cotton Manufacturers, president and gen- 
eral manager of the Nouville Lumber Co., 
and director of the Concord R. R. He is 
a member of the American Society of Me- 
chanical Engineers, American Chemical So- 
ciety, Society of Chemical Industry, Frank- 
lin Institute of Philadelphia, ex-president 
National Association of Cotton Manufac- 
turers, ex-governor of the Society of Colo- 
nial Wars, and holds membership in the 
Union and Engineers Clubs of Boston and 
the Chemists and Engineers Clubs of New 
Yurk. 



The skill of New England engineers is to 
be met with in most of the great civic and 
industrial engineering enterprises through- 
out the United States, and Boston well sus- 
tains its reputation for the high character 
of its engineers — civil, consulting, and me- 
chanical. The Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology is the leading school of its char- 
acter in America. 



THK HOOK OF BOSTON' 



1^J5 



STEPHEN O'.MEARA 

Stephen 0"^leara, police coinniissioner, 
was l:)(>rn at Charlottetown, P. E. I., July 26, 
1854, and was educated in the public schools 



1 




1 




■ 


ft" Ji.^1 


1 


^^A -4 .0K^^^^^^^^ 


p 




y 


^^^1 



STEPHEN O MEARA 



of Boston, to which cit\- he came in 1864. 
He was a reporter on the Globe from 1872- 
74 and on the Journal 1874-79. On the 
latter jiaper he was successively citv editor, 
news etlitor, general manager, editor and 
jnihlisher. He obtained a controlling interest 
in the Journal, which he sold in 1902, and 
was ahroatl in 1903-5, during which time 
Governor Ouild appointed him police com- 
missioner for the City of Boston. He was 
reappointed by Governor Foss in 191 1 and 
recently reap])ointed by Governor IMcCall. 
l^artmouth College honored Air. O'Meara 
with the A.M. degree, and Boston College 
conferred the LL.B. degree upon him. He 
is a lecturer at Harvard on police adminis- 
tration and is a member of the Algonquin, 
Exchange, Press an<l L'nion Clubs. 



Boston is not so old that she has forgot- 
ten au\' of her real historic dates, nor is 
she so voung as to cherish a few with undue 
reverence. 



HERIU'.KT C. BLACKAHiR 

Herljert C. Blacknier, deputy sheriff of 
Middlesex (."oinitv. was born in Chelsea, 
Alass., July 21, 1875, antl received his edu- 
cation in the public schools of Melrose and 
Maiden. In i8()3, before attaining his 
majority, he entered the office of the clerk 
of the Municipal C<iurt of the cit}^ of Bos- 
ton for civil Inisiness. He rose through suc- 
cessive ])ositions of increasing importance 
until February, 1903, when he was conimis- 
siiined Fourth Assistant Clerk. He held 
this position until September, 1909, when he 
was appointed Third Assistant Clerk, and 
remained as such until 191 1, when he re- 
signed to accept the a])pointment of Deputy 
Sheriff. Mr. lilacknier's long association 
w ith the Municipal Court made him familiar 
with every phase of legal work, and gave 
him a large accpiaintance among the attor- 
ne\'S of the citv, owing to the nature of his 




HKRBERTC. BLACKMEK 

work, which is entirely of a ci\il character. 
He belongs to several clubs and social or- 
ganizations, is married, and resides at 293 
West Emerson Street, Melrose. 



196 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



CHARLES T. MAIN 



Charles T. Main, au engineer of national 
reputation, who is an authority on industrial, 
steam and power plant installation, was 




CHARLES T. .MAIN 



born February i6, 1856, at Marblehead, 
Mass. He was educated in the public 
schools of Marblehead, after which he en- 
tered the Massachusetts School of Tech- 
nology and since his graduation with the 
degree of S.B., in 1876, has Ijeen unusually 
busy along the line of his chosen profession. 
For three }-ears he was assistant in the 
Mechanical Engineering Department of the 
M. I. T., and then became draughtsman for 
the Manchester Mills, N. H. He remained 
in this position for fifteen months and was 
then appointed engineer of the Lower 
Pacific Mills, remaining in this capacity for 
five years and subsequently filling the posi- 
tion of assistant superintendent for one 
year and superintendent for five years. He 
resigned in 1892 to take up the general prac- 
tice of engineering, in which he has been 
very successful. Mr. Main prepares plans 
and specifications for the erection and me- 
chanical equipment of textile mills, machine 



shops, foundries, electric light and power 
stations and industrial, steam and water 
])lants. He makes designs for steam plants 
and examinations and tests, with reference 
to efficiency, improvement and economy of 
fuel, and examination of manufacturing 
prii])erties and water powers with reference 
t(i their imprdvement and value. Mr. Main's 
li.ng experience enaljles him to render quick 
decisions on conditions and values. In 1893 
Mr. Main formed a partnership with F. AV. 
Dean, under the firm name of Dean & Main, 
which continued for thirteen years. This 
association was dissolved in 1906, and for 
the past nine years Mr Main, practicing 
alone, has accomplished the most important 
work of his career, covering the entire 
L^nited States and portions of Canada and 
Mexico. Included in this list of engineer- 
ing achievement are the complete plants of 
the Wood Worsted Mills and the Ayer Mills 
at Lawrence, the Pacific Mills Power Sta- 
tion at Lawrence, the Columbian Rope Co., 
at .Vuburn, N. Y., the reorganization of the 
mills of the Dwight Manufacturing Co., at 
Chicopee, the new No. 1 1 mill and labor 
savings storehouses of Ludlow Manufac- 
turing Associates at Ludlow, Mass., the im- 
provements in the plant of S. Slater & Sons, 
Inc., of Webster, Mass., the complete new 
plant of the Tyre Rubber Co., at Andover, 
Alass., the complete plant of the A\'arrenton 
Woolen Co., at Torrington, Conn., the new 
brass foundry for the Yale and Towne 
Manufacturing Co., at Stamford, Conn., 
and the Rainbow Falls Development of 
42,000 horse power, and the Great Falls 
Development of 90,000 horse power, on the 
Missouri River at Great Falls, Montana, 
and the Thompson Falls Development on 
Clark's Fork of the Columbia River of 
60,000 horse power. Mr. Main is a mem- 
ber of the Exchange and Engineers Clubs 
of Boston, the Engineers Cluli of New York 
the Calumet Club of Winchester, the .\mer- 
ican Society of Mechanical Engineers, the 
American Society of Civil Engineers, the 
Boston Society of Civil Engineers, and 
the National Association of Cotton Manu- 



TIIK BOOK OI-' ROSTDX 



197 



facturers. He is a term niemher '>{ the 
Corporation of tlie Massacliiisetts Institute 
of Technology, past president of the Bos- 
ton Society of Civil Engineers, president 
of the Engineers Clul), director of the Ten- 
nessee Eastern Electric Co. and of the 
Massachusetts Trust Co., and trustee of the 
^^'inchester Savings Bank. Mr. IMain's of- 
fices are at 201 Devonshire Street. He was 
married Noveml)er 14, 1883, to Elizalieth 
F. Appleton and resides in \\'inchester. He 
has always taken tleep interest in the affairs 
of the cities in «hich he has made his home, 
and in 1887-8-9 was alderman of Lawrence, 
Mass., and in i8qi was a meml)er of the 
School Board and trustee of the Public Li- 
brary in the same cit\-. From 1896 until 
1907 he was a member of the ^^'ater Bnard 
of Winchester. 

CHARLES F. HALE 
Charles F. Hale, who is the founder and 
proprietor of the largest and best equipped 
furniture house in Dorchester, was burn at 




'CH.ARLES F. U.\LV. 



the founder of the American branch lieing 
Charles Evans Hale, who located in Cali- 
fornia early in the eighteenth century. His 
sons removed to .Alachua County, Florida, 
about twelve miles from Gainesville, in 1732, 
and it was in this locality that Mr. Hale was 
born. In 1890, five years after completing 
his schooling, he came to Boston and began 
his career in the hotel business. He later 
entered the mercantile line and now has a 
comj)letel\- stocked warehouse that extends 
from 132 to 138 Park Street, Dorchester. 
He is a real estate auctioneer and has sold 
man\- valual)le parcels of land. He also acts 
as constable, having accepted that office at 
the request of political friends. 

Mr. Hale is an active Republican, a thirt\- 
second degree Mason, a member of the 
Mystic Shrine, the Elks, Odd Fellows and 
the Boston City Club. He was formerly a 
sergeant in the Ancient and Honorable Ar- 
tillery Co. of Massachusetts and still retains 
membership in that famous organization. 
His city offices are at 10 Pemberton Square. 
He resides at i \\'aldeck Street, Dorchester. 



Gainesville, Florida, December 12, 1865, 
and was educated at the Gainesville Uni- 
versity, from which he graduated in 1885. 
Mr. Hale comes from old English ancestry, 



The old Tremont Theatre, which stood on 
the site now occupied by the Tremont 
Temple, was first opened in 1835, in which 
year Charlotte Cushman matle her debut. 
It was also the scene of Fanny Kemlile's 
first Boston appearance and the place of 
first production of o])era in lioston. 

C. J. H. \\()(JDBURY 

(deceased) 

C. J. H. ^\'oodbury, who was consulting 
engineer and secretary of The National 
Association of Cotton Manufacturers, was 
born in Lynn, Mass., May 4, 185 1, and was 
educated at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. He was a direct descendant of 
John \\'oodl)ur\-, one of the leaders of the 
Dorchester Bay colony, who settled at Cape 
.Ann in 1623, and the family has since that 
period taken part in the affairs of the colony, 
province and commonwealth. Mr. Wood- 
bur\- began ])ractice in the city engineer's 
office in Lynn in 1871 and since that time he 
had figured prominently j.iiJiis profession, 
receiving for his work on mill construction 



198 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




the Alsatian Medal of the Societe Indiis- 
trielle de Mulhouse for 1893, and for the 
preparation of the Insurance Rules on Elec- 
tric Lighting, the John Scott Medal, upon 
reccnimendation of the Franklin Institute. 

The annual medal 
of the National As- 
sociation of Cotton 
Manufacturers was 
awarded t(T him in 
iQio for his work 
on the Bi1)liogra- 
phy of the Cotton 
Manufacturers, and 
in 1893 Tufts Col- 
lege conferred the 
degree of A.M. 
upon him. In 1906 
Union College hon- 
ored him with the 
Sc.D. degree and 
c. J. H. WOODBURY two vcars later he 

received the same degree from Dartmouth 
College. During his active career he had 
been engineer and vice-])resident of the 
Boston Mutual Fire Insurance Co., and as- 
sistant engineer of the American Telephone 
and Telegraph Co. He was a member of the 
various engineering societies and institutes 
and several leading clubs of New York, 
Boston and Lynn. Mr. Woodbury died on 
March 20, 19 16. 

DESMOND FITZGERALD 

Desmond Fitz- 
gerald was born in 
Nassau, N. P., May 
20, 1846, and was 
Ijrought to Provi- 
dence, R. I., in 
1849, receiving his 
education at the 
Phillips Academy. 
He was Assistant 
Secretary of State 
of Rhode Island 
and private secre- 
tary to General 
Burnside, after 
which he studied 
DESMOND FITZGERALD engineering with 




Cushing & DeWitt and then engaged in rail- 
road construction in the West. He was 
chief engineer of the Boston & Albany R. R., 
1870-73, and after being connected with the 
Boston W'ater Works from 1873 to 1903, 
was Consulting Engineer in manv important 
public and private enterprises. He has served 
on a number of governmental, state, and 
municipal commissions. He was called to 
the Philippines in 1904 to report on the 
water supply, sewage system and docks for 
Manila. He was Chairman of the Massa- 
chusetts Topographical Survey Commis- 
sion, and later a member of the Metropoli- 
tan Improvement C(.)mmission, reporting on 
the docks of Europe and preparing a plan 
for the docks at Boston Harbor. One of 
the most important of his works was the 
improvement of the cjuality of Boston's 
water suppl}-, in which he did much pioneer 
work. 



EDWARD E. 
Edward E. Babb, 



BABB 

and sole 

member of the firm of E. E. Babb & Co., 
dealers in school supplies, at 93 Federal 
Street, was born in 
Melrose, October 20, 
1859. He .started 
the present busi- 
ness in 1885 with a 
capital of $50 and 
has made it the 
largest concern of 
its kind in New 
England. Mr. Babb 
is a director of the 
Liberty Trust Co. 
and is a trustee of 
Pine Banks Park, 
which lies between 
Melrose and Mai- 
den. He is a mem- 
ber of the Boston Athletic Association, Mel- 
rose Club of Melrose, Merrimac Valley 
Country Club of Lawrence, and is Past 
President of the Amateur Athletic Union 
of the United States. Mr. Babb's ances- 
tors were among the early settlers of Ports- 
mouth, N. H. 




EDWARD E. BABB 



TIIK ROOK OF BOSTON 



l<n> 




CHARLES S. SARGEANT 



CHARLES S. SERGEANT 
Charles S. Sergeant. vice-i)resi(lent i>f the 
Bostcin Elevated Railway Co., was hcirn 
April 30, 1852, at Northamptun, ]\[ass. lie 

entered the service 
of the First 
X a t i t) a a 1 liank 
wf I^asthanipti m in 
1868, rising U> the 
jinsitinn I if teller. 
I'"r(ini iSjj until 
I S-6 he was cijn- 
ueeted with rail- 
road and iron com- 
panies in Michigan 
and returning I'last 
in that ^■ear Ijecame 
c h i e f clerk and 
a u (1 i t (J r of the 
Eastern Railroad. 
In 1883 he asso- 
ciated with Charles ]Merriam, who was fis- 
cal agent of several railroad and land com- 
panies and in 1888 was appointed auditor and 
later second vice-president and general man- 
ager of the West End Street Railway. In 
1897 he became second vice-president and 
ill 1900 vice-president of the Boston h'le- 
vated Railway Co. He is a member of the 
I'L.xchange, Algonquin, St. Botolph, Country 
and Engineers Clubs. 

Mr. Sergeant is a great-great-grandson 
of Reverend John Sergeant, who was in 
1735 a missionary to the Stockljridge 
(Mass.) Indians. 

FRED B. COLE 

Fred B. Cole, who is an authority on 
e(|uipment and construction and general mill 
engineering work, was born in Kingston, 
Mass., August 13, 1867. He was educated 
in the public schools of Kingston and at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
graduating as a mechanical engineer in June, 
1888. After receiving his degree he became 
an instructor at the Institute, but resigned 
after a few months to acce])t a position with 
the Thompson-Houston Co., now the Gen- 
eral Electric Comi)any, in Lynn, Mass. 

His next position was with E. D. Leavitt, 



designer of machinery for the Calumet & 
llecla Mining Company. In 1892 he en- 
tered the employ of F. W. Dean, and en- 
gaged in the work of designing and testing 
engines and boilers for special purposes. 

When Chas. T. Main became a partner of 
Mr. Dean, under the firm name of Dean & 
Main, he added a mill engineering depart- 




ERED B. Clll.L 

nient to the business, and Mr. Cole, who 
remained with the new tirm, took up 
mill engineering work as Mr. Alain's as- 
sistant, continuing until its dissolution. 

When Mr. Main, in 1907, entered busi- 
ness on his own account. Air. Cole engaged 
with him as principal assistant engineer, in 
which position he now is. He has Iieen 
largely responsiljle for the design and con- 
struction of the steam power plants en- 
gineered b\- the firm, as well as several 
complete industrial plants. 

Mr. Cole resides in Winchester. He is 
descended from old Plymouth stock. Gov- 
ernor Bradford being one of his ancestors 
on the paternal side, while the progenitor of 
the maternal lirancli was Francis Cook. 

Mr. Cole is a member of the .\merican 
Societv of Mechanical Engineers and the 
Ensiineers Clu]>. 



THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 




I 



Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 

CHAPTER XIII 

PUBLIC AND NOTABLE BUILDINGS 




Boston's Many Monumental Edifices, Municipal, State and Federal — Notable 
Churches — Collegiate and Other Institutional Structures 




I HE oldest of Boston's public 
buildings is the Old State 
House. Its site at the head 
of State Street (originally 
King Street and, as its 
name suggests, in the early 
days the main street of the old town) 
was long the civic centre of Boston. 
Here stood the first Town House, 
built in 1657, on Boston's earliest market- 
place. Burned in 1711, it was rebuilt 
a year later, but was again burned in 
1747- Whether any part of the Town 
House of 1657 was incorporated in the 
building of 1712 does not appear. But the 
present structure dates back to at least 171 2, 
for the walls of the second Town House are 
those of the existing building. It was oc- 
cupied by the courts and the legislature of 
the Colony and of the Province. After the 
revolution it became the first capitol of the 
Commonwealth, the General Court meeting 
here until the completion of the present 
State House on Beacon Hill. Then it re- 
verted to town uses ; when Boston became a 
■city it was for a while the City Hall 
and the post office. Since the former 
was established in School Street it was 
let for private purposes; within it was 
sadly altered and the hands()me, picturesque 
•exterior was marred and mutilated; some 
of the original external features were 
shorn off, a rude mansard roof gave a 
third story for revenue purposes, and large 
business signs shockingly disfigured the ex- 
terior on all sides. In 1882 the increasing 

o 



public regard for historic landmarks led to a 
careful restoration of the building both 
within and without, and the present condi- 
tion very closely reproduces the original 
aspect. In 1909 the old-time aspect of the 
exterior was further enhanced by the re- 
moval of numerous coats of paint, bringing 
to view the original red Ijrick. In front of 
the building, when the Stamp Act excite- 
ment was at its height, the mob burnt the 
stamped clearances. In 1768 the British 
troops were quartered in all parts of the 
building except the Council Chamber. In 
the Council Chamber James Otis made his 
great protest against the writs of assistance. 
On March 5, 1770, the "Boston Massacre" 
occurred in front of the building. The 
British commanders held their council of 
war here during the Battle of Bunker Hill. 
The Declaration of Independence was read 
from the balcony in 1776, as previously the 
death of George II and the accession of 
George III had been proclaimed. In 1778 
the Count d'Estaing was received here by 
Governor Hancock; here the State constitu- 
tion was drawn up and the convention met 
to ratify the United States constitution. In 
1789 Washington stood on the balcony and 
reviewed a long procession. On Oct. 21, 
1835, Wendell Phillips was here sheltered 
by Mayor Lyman from a pro-slavery mob. 
In the restoration the lion and unicorn 
of the British arms, that had been burned 
publicly on the celebration of independence, 
were replaced on the east front, and latterly 
they were reproduced in copper. With the 



TTIF. BOOK OF ROSTOX 



201 



restoration tlie liuildinsj; al)o\'e tlie first floor 
was leased to the Bostoniaii Society, which 
here maintains an invakiable museum of an- 
ti(|uities relating to Boston historx". Later 
the l)asement was utilized for the State Sta- 
tion of the Washington Street Tunnel and 
the Devonshire Street Station of the East 
Boston Tunnel. Then, with the perfected 
restoration, the municijial and commercial 
c fifices in the first story were vacated and the 
entire interi- r a])ove the l)asement given 
ever t:) the Bcstunian S(iciet\'. The latter 



trinit\' nf pulilic Iniildings that pla\'ed great 
parts in the birth of the natinn. Faneuil 
Hall was built in 1740 and given to the town 
by Peter Faneuil, a wealthy merchant of 
t)ne of the refugee Huguenot families, for a 
town hall and market-house. The interior 
was burnt out in 1761 and reljuilt the next 
vear. hi 1X05 the I)uilding was much en- 
larged ami improved. A few years ago a 
general renovation was undertaken with the 
object of diminishing fire risks, and the 
wooden belfr\- was duplicated in copper. 




Dr(j:vin£ by H . Louis GUoson 
THE OLD HISTORIC FANEUIL HALL LOOKING EAST. THE TOWN MEETINGS AND DEBATES HELD HERE 
DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD GAVE THE HALL ITS FAMILIAR NAME, THE "CRADLE OF 
LIBERTY." (jUINCY MARKET BUILDING SHOWING BEYOND 



in turn gave the use of the two west rooms 
for the fascinating collection of the Boston 
Marine Museum, organized by A. Wads- 
worth Longfellow and associates. 

The second oldest of Boston's public 
buildings is Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of 
Liberty." With the Old State Hou.se and 
the Old South Meetinghouse, we have a 



The large hall, seventy-eight feet square, 
has a gallery on three sides, added in 1806, 
when the hall was doubled in width and 
height. It is hung with many portraits of 
public men. The originals of most of these 
were so valuable that they have been re- 
moved to the Museum of Fine Arts for 
safety and replaced by copies. The town 



202 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



meetings were held here ; the demonstra- 
tions previous to the Revohition gave a 
great impetus to the movement for inde- 
pendence. Ever since, it has been the great 
place for popular gatherings; any group of 
citizens has the right to call a public meet- 
ing here, free of cost, on request to the city 
authorities. Here Wendell Phillips made 
his first appearance as an orator in behalf 
of the anti-slavery movement. During the 
siege of Boston Faneuil Hall was used as a 
playhouse: a play written by General Bur- 
goyne, "The Blockade of Boston," with 
British officers as actors, was broken up at 
its first and only performance by the news 
that "the Yankees are attacking our works 
in Charlestown." The funds for rebuilding 
in 1 76 1 were partly raised by lottery. The 
gilded grasshopper weather-vane on the 
cupola was copied from one on the London 
Royal Exchange. On the floor above the 
hall is the armory of the Ancient and Hon- 
orable Artillery Company, with a museum 
of Revoluti<inary and Colonial relics. Lease 
or sale of the hall is forI)idden by the city 
charter. At public meetings there usually 
are no seats on the floor. The ground floor 
has ahva}'s l:)een used as a public market, 
and the streets around are included in the 
"market district," in which any farmer 
within seven miles has the right to stand 
with his wagon and sell his produce. 

Faneuil Hall Market was enormously ex- 
tended in 1825 by the erection of the great 
market-lniilding between South and Nurth 
Market Streets at the instance of the first 
Mayor Ouincy. Appropriately it is built of 
Quincy granite and is popularly known as 
"Quincy Market." The building is five 
hundred and thirty-five feet long and covers 
twenty-seven thousand square feet. Over 
the central section is a handsome dome cov- 
ered with copper. In the second story are 
w'arerooms and the rooms of the Fruit and 
Produce Exchange. Here in the second 
story and in Faneuil Hall were regularly 
held for many years the famous triennial 
exhiljitions of the Massachusetts Charitable 
Mechanics Association : The "^Mechanics' 
Fairs," — a temporary bridge connecting 
with Faneuil Hall. The cost of this market- 



house was one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars. 

The City Hall, on School Street, begun in 
1862 and finished in 1865, is a monument 
of the Civil War period — a time when the 
French Renaissance was the dominant influ- 
ence in our architecture. It was designed 
by the architects Arthur Oilman and Grid- 
ley J. F. Bryant. In its rather florid ele- 
gance its efi^ect was at first pleasing, but it 
soon palled upon public taste. Its interior 
has nothing noteworthy. It occupies the 
site of a Bulfinch structure, the predecessor 
of the old Suffolk County Courthouse that 
so long stood in Court Square, fronting on 
Court Street. When Boston became a city 
the Courthouse was remodelled for a City 
Hall, and later the granite Courthouse was 
built that lately was replaced liy the City 
Hall extension, or "annex," of limestone. 
This extension, of the steel-frame office- 
Iniilding type, was designed Ijy the architect, 
Thomas P. R. Graham. Its facade, front- 
ing on Court Street with four giant fluted 
engaged colunms supporting in the attic 
story four allegorical female figures, has a 
fine effect of dignity. The architecture of 
this new part will probably be that of the 
structure that eventually must replace the 
now antic|uated School-Street section. Two 
bronze statues of eminent sons of Boston 
stand in front of the School-Street fa(;ade : 
that of Benjamin Franklin, by Richard 
Greenough, dating from 1856, was the first 
portrait statue erected in the city; that of 
the first mayor, the elder Josiah Ouincy, a 
work of Thomas Ball, was erected in 1879. 
In recent years "Municipal Buildings" 
have been erected in various sections of the 
citv. These serve the people of their re- 
spective localities by providing convenient 
facilities for the transaction of business with 
the city and saving them the trouble of a 
journey to School Street ; also as social and 
recreation centres with various popular ac- 
tivities, including rooms for meetings, gym- 
nasiums, baths, etc. Such buildings have 
been erected in South Boston, Dorchester, 
East Boston, Charlestown, and J;miaica 
Plain. The Charlestown municipal building 
occupies the site of the old Charlestown City 




BOSTON CITY HALL 



This heavy granite edifice was begun in 1862. It is a nionnnient of the 
Civil War period, a time when the French Renaissance was the dominant 
influence in our architecture. It occupies the site of a Bulfinch structure, the 
predecessor of the old Suffolk County Courthouse that so long stood in 
Court Square, opposite Court Street. Two bronze statues siand in front 
of the School Street facade: that of Benjamin Franklin, the first portrait 
statue erected in the city; and that of Josiah Ouincy, the first mayor of 
Boston. The building has a handsome extension or "annex" of limestone 
facing on Court Street. 



204 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Hall, reniodelletl in 1872, shortly ljefi>re an- 
nexation to Boston : the one in Jamaica 
Plain replaces Curtis Hall, the town hall of 
\Vest Roxl:>ur\- before annexation. 

The City Hospital on Harrison Avenue 
makes a monumental effect from its ap- 
proach from the west, its facade and dome 
on the axis of the view from ^^^ashington 
Street through Worcester Square. Here, 
and in several large adjacent structures, it 
houses one of the most important public hos- 
pitals in the United States. Its Emergency 
Branch, facing Ha}inarket Square, is in 
architectural eft'ect on that commanding site 
similar to that of its predecessor, the orig- 
inal Ijrick terminal statinn of the Boston & 
Maine Railroad. Another hospital Ijuilding 
of im])ortance is that of the Massachusetts 
General, on Blossom Street, designed bv 
Bulfinch. But by far the most imposing 
antl lieautiful of medical structures is the 
marble group of the new Harvard Medical 
School on Longwood Avenue, its handsome 
court, on the axis of Louis Pasteur Avenue, 
making noble eft'ect in the vista from the 
Fenway. Other architecturally fine pulilic 
buildings of this class, massed in this neigh- 
borhood, are the buildings of the Flarvard 
Dental School, the Children's Hospital, the 
Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, the Collis P. 
Huntington Memorial Hospital, and the 
Hospital for Animals erected as a memorial 
to the late George T. Angell, founder of the 
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Animals. Not far away, fac- 
ing the Fenway, is the marble Forsyth 
Dental Infirmary for Children. This build- 
ing, with its rare foreground of the Fenway 
landscape, makes a fine pendant for the 
great marble building of the ]\Iuseum of 
Fine Arts, near by. 

The architect of the Museum is Guy 
Lowell, who was awarded the honor of 
giving final expression to the elaborate 
Studies of museums and galleries of art in 
all the leading cities of Europe made by a 
distinguished group of advisory architects 
appointed for the task when the removal 
from the Copley Square location to the new 
site was decided upon. Mr. Lowell's de- 
sign for the colonnaded front on the Fen- 



way, the extension Iniilt for the galleries of 
paintings provided by the munificent gift of 
Mrs. R. D. Evans as a memorial to her 
husband, represents a great advance over 
that of the Huntington Avenue fai^ade. 

The interior of the Museum is a model of 
convenient and artistic planning based upon 
a scientifically logical classification and ar- 
rangement. The halls, galleries and corri- 
dors are designed with a fine impressiveness. 
The arrangement of the various collections 
is twofold. On the main floor are the dis- 
tinctively "show" exhibits in the best sense 
of the word — the cream of the collections 
in the way of beauty, value and general in- 
terest attractively displayed in harmonious 
environments that set them forth to the best 
advantage. In the Ijasement are arranged 
the more strictly "study" collections, where 
they are easily accessible for research work 
and special examination. In various re- 
spects the Museum is one of the leading in- 
stitutions of its kind in the world — a rank 
attained ])urely through the individual ef- 
forts of persons interested. In certain fea- 
tures the Museum leads the world, as in 
the art of the Far East, represented by the 
Morse collection of Japanese pottery, the 
Fenellosa collection of old Japanese and 
Chinese paintings, and the rich collections 
of Japanese and Chinese art presented by 
Dr. Sturgis Bigelow. The Museum is also 
said to have the finest collection of casts 
from the antique possessed by any institu- 
tion of its kind ; while in the departments of 
classic sculpture and in painting, of old 
masters and of modern art, the representa- 
tion is unusually rich. 

In contrast with the Museum of Fine 
Arts stands, not far away, the exceedingly 
plain exterior of Fenway Court, the famous 
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the 
Fenway, which incidentally includes the city 
residence of its founder, Mrs. John L. 
Gardner. But the marvellous beauty of the 
interior, with its magnificent collections — 
including not a few of the world's master- 
pieces housed about a semi-tropical court — 
is enhanced by this external severity. 

Fenway Court has for neighbors some 



TTTF. BOOK OF BOSTON' 



205 



iiiijjortant educational institntii ms numu- 
nientally hnused. Practically adjacent is the 
distinguished group of public-school build- 
ings built for the Girls' Latin School, the 
Boston Normal School, and the liuihhng for 
the "model" grammar school serving as an 
adjunct to the Normal. This group, so 
beautifulh hanni nious in its develojinient. 
is notable ftjr the fact that the three units 



Pasteur .\\enue and the I'enwav, is the im- 
posing editice of the High School of Ldm- 
merce. designed in collegiate Gothic bv the 
associated architects, C. Howard \\'alker 
and Kilham iK: llopkins. The remarkable 
list of public and quasi-public institutions 
facing on the Fenway ma\- l)e closed with a 
mention of tlie retined fai,"ade of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical .Societ\- at the corner of 




OLD CORNER BOOK STORE, CORNER OF 
THE BUILDING AT THE LEFT 



were assigned respectively to three promi- 
nent firms of architects : Peabody & Stearns, 
Maginnis & Sullivan, Coolidge & Carlson. 
And, instead of each firm asserting its own 
individuality in the work entrusted to it, 
tliey all joined in studxing the problem as 
a whole, with the result of a beautiful unity 
in design. On the Fenway, lieyond h\'nwav 
Court to the westward, stand the two main 
buildings of Simmons College, an institu- 
tion for the vocational training of young- 
women along the lines similar to those estab- 
lished in the Drexel Institute of I'hiladel- 
lihia. Peabody & Stearns are the architects. 
A little further on, at the corner of Louis 



Dra-.tiitg hy 11 Loiii;_CUa^on 
SCHOOL AND WASHINGTON STREETS, 
WITH THE "hip" ROOF 

Boylston entrance, and its harmoniously 
tlesigned next-door iieighl)or, the building 
of the Massachusetts Medical Liljrar}-. 

In connection with the Fenway neighbor- 
hood, mention should be made of one of the 
most distinctive of Boston's landmarks as 
seen from the Fens, enhanced by its 
diverse effects as it composes itself 
with the surrounding masses of liuildings 
accortling to the point of view: the great 
dome of the Christian Science Church, 
designed liy Charles Brigham. The building 
itself is somewhat over-llorid in its rich or- 
namentation and is not ]iarticularl\ well- 
proportioned. r>ut these shortcomings lind 



206 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ample compensation in the admirable char- 
acter of the dome. And the building itself 
is interesting and well justifies the creation 
of the garden that keeps the view unim- 
peded from Huntington Avenue. This is 
the "Mother Church" of the Christian Sci- 
entists. Hence for historical motives the 
original edifice, designed in a rather tame 
romanesque, contrasting crudely with the 
contiguous new part, has been preserved 
as being the first temple devoted to tlie 
doctrine. 

The most monumental of modern Boston 
church edifices is Trinit}-, on Copley Square, 
where Phillips Brooks was the rector until 
his elevation as bishop. This is the most 
celebrated church designed by H. H. 
Richardson, the eminent architect who 
started the vogue in which the romanesque 
st\'le was held in the last quarter of the 
nineteenth centurv. The suggestions for 
Trinity were derived from Spanish roman- 
esque types. It is related that since at the 
time the funds availalile would not admit 
the development of the facade as he desired, 
Richardson purposely made it as unsatisfac- 
tory as possible in order to assure its ulti- 
mate completion — a work that was carried 
out liy his successors : Shepley, Rutan & 
Coolidge. 

On the Back Bay, in this immediate 
neighborhood, are to be found several other 
notable examples of ecclesiastical architec- 
ture. Two of these face Berkeley Street : 
the First Church, at the corner of Marl- 
borough Street, designed by Ware & Van 
Brunt (also the architects of the Society of 
Natural History's building and of its neigh- 
bor, the Rogers Building of the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology, on the open 
space enclosed by Boylston, Newbury, 
Berkeley and Clarendon Streets). The lo- 
cation of the Governor \\'inthrop statue be- 
fore this church is more appropriate, and 
shows it to better advantage, than upon its 
original site in Scollay Square, where its 
dedication was a feature of the celebration, 
on Sept. 17, 1880, of the 250th anniversary 
of the settlement of Boston. It was modelletl 
by Richard S. Greenough. The Central 



Church at the corner of Newbury is the 
work of Upjohn, celebrated as the architect 
of Trinit}- Church, New York. The grace- 
ful spire, an exceptionally beautiful ex- 
ample of English Gothic, is called Upjohn's 
masterpiece, possessing a certain delicate 
individuality lacking in his spire of Trinitv. 
The new Old South, at the corner of 
Boylston and Dartmouth Streets, was de- 
signed by Cummings & Sears. Like Trin- 
ity, since 1875 it has been a conspicuous 
element of Back Bay architecture. Its 
handsome tower is a landmark from many 
directions, particularlv in the vista down 
Boylston Street from as far away as the 
Common. From certain points of view it 
compares finely with the Public Library, 
serving as a campanile in relation to that 
structure. In this landmark Boston has a 
notable example of a "leaning tower." It 
appears that this was due not to any settle- 
ment of the foundation, but to a curious 
error in construction. It is related that one 
day, when the work had been carried to a 
certain height, the architect, J\Ir. Cummings, 
was at hand in his supervisory duty; the 
builder, referring to the tower, asked what 
he should go by as a guide in the perpen- 
dicular. Looking about the neighborhood, 
the architect noticed a high chimney on the 
Chauncy Hall School, then near by on 
Boylston Street. "You may as well go by 
that chimney," he said. But it turned out 
that the chimnev was almost imperceptibly 
out of plumb. So, when the tower was 
finished, it proved to be quite perceptibly out 
of plumb, and leaning southward. 

At the corner of Commonwealth Avenue 
and Clarendon Street is what is now the 
First Baptist Church, built originally for the 
old Brattle Square Church, a Unitarian 
Congregational society. This was designed 
by Richardson prior to his work on Trinity. 
The architect's strong individuality is shown 
in the celebrated frieze of this tower, with 
its colossal figures in low relief. This work 
was responsible for the famous colossal fig- 
ure of "Liberty Enlightening the World," in 
New York Harbor. Richardson was a fel- 
low student with Bartholdi at the Ecole de 



208 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Beaux Arts in Paris, and the two became 
intimate. When Richardson conceived this 
frieze he sent for Bartholdi to do it. And 
while here Bartholdi became so enthusiastic 
for America that he was inspired to design 
his "Liberty." 

Of all the public l)uildings erected by the 
City of Boston, the Public Library stands 
at the head as the most beautiful. Its noble 
charm abides unabated, and it still ranks 
as one of the most beautiful monumental 
buildings in America. It was at the instance 
of a num1)er of the foremost Boston archi- 
tects that its design was entrusted to McKini, 
Mead & White ; a competition for the work 
had proved unsatisfactory, and it was feared 
that in some way it might be given into un- 
worthy hands. Mr. McKim gave to the 
task his individual attention and it is 
marked throughout with its exquisite taste. 
In its serene nobility and poetic gracious- 
ness it suggests a glorious musical work by 
a masterly composer. Being a world classic 
in architecture it has been described too 
many times to warrant a review here. Suf- 
fice it to say that Bostonians are beginning 
to appreciate their possession and to admire 
the judgment of Mr. Samuel A. B. Abbott, 
to whose foresight we owe so much, as ex- 
pressed elsewhere. 

From the inception to the completion of 
this classic structure, the construction was 
looked after by a board of five trustees, of 
which Samuel A. B. Abliott was president. 
All were men of the highest standard of 
integrity, and it Avas thovight the original 
appropriation for the work would be am- 
ple in their hands, but when it was found 
that nearly three times the amount of the 
first estimate would be required, Mr. Ab- 
bott, as the directing spirit of the board, 
was censured in all quarters. None ques- 
tioned his honesty — that was beyond re- 
proach — but it was thought his ideals had 
led him into useless expenditure. No one 
knev\' that Mr. Abliott was giving to the 
city a building that is the most beautiful in 
the world devoted to literary purposes, but 
when it came to be realized that he had 



created an artistic palace that wnuld endure 
for centuries, public sentiment changed, and 
at this late da\' those who fcrmerlv con- 




SAMUEL A. B. ABBOTT 

EX-PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES CF THE 

BOSTON PUBLIC LIB.^ARY 

demned are now loud in praising his un- 
selfish and painstaking work. During his 
membership on the board, wdiich dated 
from 1879, ''^ "'i* li'* 'I'"! *^o keep the 
library up to the standard established by 
preceding boards, the members of which 
Avere all eminent men, and eventually place 
it on the same plane as the British Museum. 
The lil)rary did at one period rank second, 
Init it has now fallen to fourth place. Mr. 
Abbott fought this deterioration, which was 
Ijrought a1)out by a desire to popularize the 
library at the expense of its scholarh- en- 
vironment. Not being successful, Mr. Ab- 
bott resigned, and has lived long enough to 
see the people of Boston recognize the 
Public Library as his creation and to con- 
sider it a lasting monument to its creator. 

Another monumental library building is 
the Boston Athenaeum on Beacon Street, be- 
tween Park Street and Tremont Place, its 
rear windows pleasantly overlooking the 



THE ROOK OP^ BOSTON 



200- 



Granarx' ljiii"\'iiig-gi"iiuinl. It dates from 
1849, the Athenanim itself incorporated in 
1807. It is the second great library in Bos- 
ton and the largest private library, nnniber- 
ing between 200,000 and 300,000 volumes 
and valuable art collections. The architect 
of the present bniUling was Edward Cabot. 
\'ery recently the building was enlarged by 
the adtlition of two new stories and com- 
pletelN' rebuilt within, in a thoroughly fire- 
proof manner. It was a masterly ])iece of 
reconstruction, carried out with extraurdi- 



ai)]>nipriate original feature, not at all gro- 
tesque, or incongruous with the classic qual- 
ity of the design, are the heads of animals 
in bold relief carved on the keystones of the 
windows. The Boston Society of Natural 
History was founded in 183 r. 

Another important building of an essen- 
tially educational character is Horticultural 
Hall, erected by the Massachusetts Horti- 
cultural Society at the corner of Pluntington 
and Massachusetts .\venues early in the 
Twentieth ("entur\-, the handsome granite- 




^ " "^ ii I I 



\iL,JU:^m 4» -i Ji9' "*jk 





HORTICULTUR.\L HALL 



nary fidelity to the dignified beauty of the 
original interior. The hall on the second 
floor is an exact duplicate of its predecessor. 
The new part, on the fifth floor, is the gen- 
eral reading-room, with a fine barrel-arch 
ceiling. With all its newness and substan- 
tiality, the continuity with the old interior, 
so rich in historic associations with the days 
of Emerson, Holmes, Lowell, and Long- 
fellow, seems unbroken. 

The Natural History ^kluscuni at Boyls- 
ton and Newbury Streets, dating from 1864, 
was the first monumental buikling com- 
pleted on the Back Bay lands. Its refined 
and dignified design, the work of Ware & 
\'an Brunt, was carried out in brick and 
brown sandstone with notable success. An 



building at Tremijnt and linnnlield Streets, 
having been outgrown. The architects were 
Wheelwright & Haven. Here are held the 
finest horticultural and floricultural exhibi- 
tions in the Ibiited States. The main ex~ 
hibition hall was designed with special 
reference to its purpose, its floor on a level 
with the ground and admitting the bringing 
and placing of plants with the least trouble. 
The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 
founded in 1821), is the richest organization 
(if the kind in the world, achieving that en- 
viable rank through its fortunate estaljlish- 
ment of the pioneer nio(k-rn nu'al cemetery 
at Mount Auburn. Boston has long been 
the centre of horticultural interests in the 
United States, and the activitv of this so- 



2in 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ciety has been a main factor in assuring 
that distinction. 

Boston's musical Hfe, wherein in many 
respects the city stands preeminent in Amer- 
ica, is largely centred about three buildings 
in this neighborhood. On the opposite 
■corner of Huntington and Massachusetts 
Avenues stands Symphony Hall, the succes- 
.sor of the historic Music Hall, down town, 
as the home of the Boston Symphony Or- 
chestra, endowed by Major Henry L. Hig- 
^inson, and a world-renowned organization. 
Symphony Hall was designed by McKim, 
Mead & White. Its acoustical properties 
are perfect. 



educational plant of the Boston Young 
Men's Christian Association. Among its 
notable features is the swimming-pool, one 
of the largest and best in the country — sup- 
plied with water from an artesian well. 

Farther out on the avenue is the fine 
group of the Wentworth Institute, devoted 
to vocational training in the mechanic arts. 

Also in this neighborhood stands the 
plain brick building that houses the Medical 
and Dental Schools of Tufts College. 

The executive and central administrative 
activities of the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts are mainly concentrated in the 
State House on lieacon Hill, originally se- 







4 


/' 




i 


^^^i 


m . 


N. 










H 


I^^ljti"" 1 ^^T^^^«H^^^^^H^^B^^^^^^^^^w' RI^^^B 


Ittflftisf^^M 


B 


if"'""^'i 



AQUARIUM CITY POINT 



The same praise is given to the fine audi- 
torium of the Boston Opera House, a little 
farther along on Huntington Avenue, de- 
signed by Wheelwright & Haven, and one 
of the best arranged and constructed theatre 
buildings in the new world. 

On the opposite side of the avenue, a 
little beyond Symphony Hall, stands the 
building of the New England Conservatory 
of Music, the leading institution of the sort 
in America — also designed by Wheelwright 
& Haven. Here is the fine auditorium of 
Jordan Hall, the gift of Eben D. Jordan to 
the Conservatory. 

Close by, a large plain building of brick 
houses the magnificent philanthropic and 



cured for this site by the action of the town 
of Boston in purchasing for $4,000 the 
Hancock pasture and conveying it to 
the Commonwealth. Here the "Bulfinch 
front," as the part designed by Charles Bul- 
finch is now called, was erected in 1795. 
Then in 1853-1856 the "Bryant addition" 
( Gridley J. F. Bryant, architect) consider- 
ably enlarged the building on the north. 
Later, the extensive "anne.x" (Charles 
Brigham, architect), arching Mount Vernon 
Street and prolonging the building to Derne 
Street, covering the site of the granite 
Beacon Hill reservoir of the Boston Water 
\\\irks, had the unfortunate result of sadly 
impairing the proportions of the building. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



211 



This part was added in 1889-1895. Now, 
more happily, the problem of restoring the 
historic character of the original interior 
and adequately planning harmonious wings, 
was lately given into cunipetent hands. The 
original, or Bulfinch. part has thus been 
strengthened and so far as practicable made 
fire-resisting, while its beautiful old features 
— Doric Hall, the okl Senate chamber, the 



with the cxce]itinn nf a large auditurium, or 
room for legislative hearings, in the base- 
ment of the east wing, are devotetl to office 
purposes. It seems likelv that ultimately 
yet another new wing to the State House 
will be added for the accommodation of the 
State Library and the Supreme Court as an 
L of the annex, which would naturally en- 
tail a change of the latter fmni \'ellow to 




k. 




" " " SI 35 1J 35 " n :J 3! !i 

u » " " !1 !! ., „ ,. 51 ?3 :: n « - - 

AS S»»J,3 



llJJXU 



u 






i,3j n a n a u uji 

!|^Jit*rr':' """",g^'^ "^^ ^Sr ^™' "^ 



KtaaSs- 




BOSTON YOUNG MEN S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION BUILDING 



old Hal! of Representatives, and the 
chamber for the Governor and Council — 
have either been restored most painstak- 
ingly or preserved in their original aspect. 
Jn charge of a special board of architects 
(Robert D. Andrews, R. Clipston Sturgis 
and William Chapman) the new marble 
Avings have been designed in harmony with 
the Bulfinch front, the latter ])ainted white 
to agree with the marble, as in the case of 
the capitol at \\'ashington, while the re- 
planning of the grounds has assured a dig- 
nity and a quiet beauty that gives for the 
first time a landscape setting in harmony 
A\ith the environment. The new wings, 



white by replacing the lirick with a surfac- 
ing of marble. The approach to the State 
House is at present flanked by a statue of 
Daniel Webster by Hiraiu Powers, erected 
bv the Webster Memorial Committee in 
1859, and by a statue of Horace Mann by 
Emma Stebbins, the colored sculptor, a gift 
from Massachusetts teachers and school 
children. Before the entrance to the east 
wing stands an equestrian statue of General 
Hooker of the Civil War (an honor to 
"Fighting Joe," scathingly condemned by 
Charles Francis Adams, the younger, in his 
autol)it)grapliy ) by French and Potter. In 
the grounds on tlic east side is a reproduc- 



212 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



tion of the first Independence monument in 
the conntrv. designed hv Bnlfinch and 
erected on the summit of Beacon Hill in 
17QO-1791. Near by are statues of Charles 
Devens (general in the Civil War antl 
later judge), by Olin L. Warner, and 
of Nathaniel P. Banks ( former governor 
member of Congress, etc.), by H. H. Kit- 
son. In the Doric Hall is Sir Francis 
Chantrey's marble statue of Wa.shington, 
the gift of the Washington monument com- 
mittee in 1857, and the marble statue of 
Gov. John A. Andrew, by Th(jmas Ball, 
erected in 1871. Tal)lets near the Wash- 
ington statue commemorate Charles Bul- 
finch and record the preservation and re- 
newal of the State House. On the walls are 
portraits of various governors of the Com- 
monwealth. Beyond is the Rotunda, or 
"Memorial Hall." Here are preserved the 
battle-flags of Massachusetts regiments in 
the Civil War. Here also are busts of vari- 
ous governors of Massachusetts and a beau- 
tiful memorial group in bronze by Bela L. 
Pratt, commemorating the nurses of the 
Civil War, erected by the Army Nurses As- 
sociation. In four panels above are mural 
paintings depicting events in Massachusetts 
history : "The Pilgrims on the Mayflower" 
and "John Eliot Preaching to the Indians," 
both by Henry Oliver Walker, and "The 
Fight at Concord Bridge, April 19, 1775," 
and "The Return of the Colors to the Cus- 
tody of the Commonwealth, December 22, 
1875," both by Edward Simmons, a native 
of Concord. The last is notable as depict- 
ing a historic scene in front of the building 
within which is the picture itself. The 
mural painting in the Senate staircase, by 
Robert Reid, depicts another historic scene 
in Massachusetts history : a scene in the 
Council Chamber of the Old State House 
representing "James Otis making his 
Famous Argument against the Writs of 
Assistance in the Old Town-House in Bos- 
ton, in February, 1761." Among the treas- 
ures in the State Library most precious 
is the famous Bradford manuscript of 
the "History of the Plimoth Plantation." 
The national government is represented 
in Boston architecture by onl)- two pulilic 



buildings of monumental character. First 
of these is the Federal Building, occupying 
the block formed by Devonshire, Milk and 
Water Streets and Post Office Square. Its 
beginning dates from 1870. Its architec- 
ture, an infelicitous attempt in French 
Renaissance, has been termed "Mullet- 
escjue," its designer, Mullet, having been 
supervising architect of the treasury at the 
time. It is a contemporary of the still 
worse Federal Building in New York. It 
is of Cape Ann granite. The part facing on 
Devonshire Street, which then included only 
about half of the facades on Milk and 
A\'ater, was finished externally, with the ex- 
ception of the roof, at the time of the Great 
Fire of November 9-10, 1872. This great 
fire-proof mass served to arrest the advance 
of the flames, thus saving the section about 
State Street. The burning of the buildings 
ti) the eastward gave a good opportunity for 
the extension of the Federal I'.uilding; hence 
Post Office Square was laid out by the city 
for the sake of giving an effective frontage 
on that side. The two marble groups by 
Daniel C. French, "Commerce" and "In- 
dustry," give distinction to this faqade. 
The ground floor and basement are occu- 
pied by the Post Office; the stories above by 
the United States Sub-treasur)- and the 
Federal Courts. 

The United States Customhouse, on 
McKinley Square, India Square and State 
Street, dates from 1847. The original 
building, long colloquially known as "the 
Stone Fort," was an admirable example of 
the adaptations from classic styles in vogue 
in those days. The architect was Ammi B. 
Young. When it was built it was very ap- 
propriately the monumental feature of the 
water-front, the land now occupied by the 
great granite State Street block not having 
then replaced the open dock adjacent to 
Long WHiarf. Its transformation, whereby 
the Customhouse became Boston's all- 
dominating landmark, dates from 1900. 
The original customhouse building was 
retained practically in its entirety, the 
beautiful old rotunda, with its columns and 
domed ceiling reproducetl as the entrance 
hall of the new building. The best and 



THP: l^OOK OF BOSTOX 



most practical feature ni the new custom- 
house is its efficiency in tlie transaction of 
lousiness, this having- been achieved by the 
substitution of perpendicular transit for 
lateral locomotion, thus avoiding; the neces- 
sity for long walks in going from depart- 
ment to department. The character of the 
new building as a landmark is indicated bv 



fringed bv pointed durnu'r windows, gives it 
an luiusual appearance. Its erection on this 
site was made possil)le by the public spirit 
of Henry M. Whitney, the founder of Bos- 
ton's consolidated and electrified modern 
system of local transit. 

The Boston Chamber of (/nmmerce is a 
ver\- (lid and substantial institutinn. It is 




THE MOST TRAVERSED SECTION OF BOSTON COMMON, SHOWING FAMOUS OLD PARK STREET CHURCH (DATING FRO.M 
1809), TWO SUBWAY ENTRANCES, CHARACTERISTIC OF MODERN BOSTON, AND 
THE STATE CAPITOL AT THE LEFT 



the circumstance that it is seen by incoming 
passengers from Europe from as far away 
as Boston lightship, well out of sight of 
land. It commands a magnificent view over 
a wide extent of coast and far into the in- 
terior, including the mountain masses from 
Wachusett to Monadnock and beyond. The 
height of the tower is four hundred and 
ninety-five feet, eight inches. 

Near by, on India Street, is the building 
of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, 
built in 1902. Its architects were Shepley, 
Rutan & Coolidge. It is of light granite; 
its semi-cylindrical form with conical roof, 



the third in line of descent from the one 
bearing this same name which was founded 
some time between the years 1793 and 1904. 
It has over one thousand members, repre- 
sentative of the grain and produce trade 
especially, of the transportation interests, 
and of many manufacturing and mercantile 
lines. It owns and occupies property valued 
at several hundred thousand dollars and 
is in a prosperous condition financially. The 
Chamber worthily represents the rank and 
name of Boston among the business centres 
of the world. It has always been progres- 
sive and influential in maintaining Boston's 
commercial interests. 



214 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF BOSTON 




BUILDING OF THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF BOSTON 
FEDERAL, FRANKLIN AND CONGRESS STREETS 



The First National Bank of Boston has a 
capital of $5,000,000, siu'plus and undivided 
profits of $12,596,085.22, and deposits of 
$109,413,188.83. The officers are: Daniel 
G. Wing, president; Clifton H. Dwinnell, 
Downie D. Muir, Bernard \V. Traiford, 



Palmer E. Presbrey, Francis A. Goodhue, 
( )laf Olsen, vice-presidents; Bertram I). 
Blaisdell, cashier; George W. Hyde, Edwin 
R. Rooney, William F. Edlefson, assistant 
cashiers, and Stanton D. Bullock, auditor. 
Incorporated as a national bank in 1864. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



21S 



BOSTON SAFE DEPOSFF AND TRUST COMPANY 




BOSTON SAFE DEPOSIT AND TRUST COMPANY BlILDING FRANKLIN, DEVONSHIRE AND ARCH STREETS 



The Boston Safe Dejiosit and Trust Com- 
pany has Ijeen in active business since 1875. 
The Company has a paid up capital of 
$1,000,000. The officers of the Company 



are : Charles E. Rogers(_in, president, \\ il- 
liani II. Wellington, vice-president, William 
C. \\ illiams, vice-president, and Ceorge 1'-- 
Coodspeed, treasurer. 



216 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



JOSIAH O. BENNETT 
Josiah O. Bennett, capitalist, was born in 
Somerville, Mass., November 14, 1854, and 
was educated at the Somerville High 




JOSIAH Q. BENNETT 

School. He began his business career 
March i, 1871, as a messenger for the 
Maverick National Bank, and was entrusted 
with duties of continually increasing im- 
portance until he arose to the position of 
cashier in 1879. He continued in this 
office until 1898, when he was chosen 
president of the Mercantile Trust Company, 
resigning in 1913 to devote his entire time 
to his private corporate interests, which are 
many and varied. He is president and 
director of the Athol Gas and Electric Co., 
secretary-treasurer of the Boston Brick Co., 
secretary of the Boston Woven Hose and 
Rubber Co., president of the Cambridge 
Electric Co., the Fresh Pond Ice Co., Marl- 
borough Electric Co., Marlborough-Hudson 
Gas Co., Metropolitan Ice Co., Purity Dis- 
tilling Co., Westborough Gas and Electric 
Co., Weymouth Light and Power Co., and 



director of Goepper Bros. Co. and the 
Metropolitan \\'harf Trust. He is a mem- 
ber (if the Exchange Club of Boston, 
Colonial Club of Cambridge, and the Bel- 
mont Springs Country Club of Waverly. 
On the paternal side Mr. Bennett is of Eng- 
lish extraction, both families having settled 
here previous to the Revolutionary War, 
several of the memljers serving in the 
Colonial Army. 

JOHN N. COLE 
Beginning his Inisiness career in Andover 
in 1878, John N. Cole became in rapid se- 
(|uence newspaper publisher, legislator and 
financier. He was 
born at Andover, 
Noveml:)er 4, 1863, 
and was educated 
in the public 
s c h o o 1 s. At the 
age of twentv-five 
he was publisher 
of the A n d o v e r 
To7i.'iisiuan, in 1S96 
he had secured con- 
trol of the Law 
rence Telegram. 
and in 1910 of tlu- 
Fibre ami Fabric of 
Boston. Mr. Cole 

, f JOHN N. COLE 

was a member of 

the Massachusetts Legislature from 1902 
until 1908 and was Speaker of the House 
in 1 906-7-8. He is treasurer of the Andover 
Press, treasurer of the Andover Realty 
Co., and president of the Joseph M. Wade 
Publishing Company. At present he is 
chairman of the Boston Industrial Develop- 
ment Board and a trustee of the Andover 
Savings Bank. His clubs are the Boston 
City, Boston Press, Meadowbrook Golf, 
and the Andover. He is a member of the 
Masonic Fraternity, the Grange, the Odd 
Fellows and Knights of Pythias. His offices 
are at 7 Water Street and his home is in 
Andover. 




THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



MERCHANTS NATIONAL BANK 



217 




^/ ^|wi 



f 



■■PI 



SI a 

Si ii 



■Pill:.. Sijif 




1^ s? jaj 

0k ifll ^■ 





MERCHANTS NATIONAL BANK BUILDING, 28 STATE STREET 



Tlif Merchants National Bank has a cap- 
ital stock of $3,000,000 and deposits of 
$65,208,923.89. The officers of the com- 
pany are: Eugene \'. R. Thayer, president; 
Alfred L. Ripley, lirst vice-president; 



Cliarles B. Wiggin, Orrin (i. Wood. A. P. 
Weeks, Edward H. Gleason, David M. Os- 
l)orne, Horatio G. Curtis, vice-presidents; 
and Frederick C. \\'aite, cashier. It was 
incorporated as a national bank in 1864. 



218 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




WILLIAM M. PREST 



WILLIAM M. PREST 

William M. Prest, attorney-at-law and for- 
mer president of the Paul Revere Trust Co., 
was born in Blackburn, England, February 

22, 1862. He was 
educated at Wes- 
leyan Academj' and 
Amherst College, 
graduating from 
the latter in 1888 
with the degree of 
A.M. He obtained 
the LL.B. degree 
from the Boston 
University L a w 
School in 1891 and 
was admitted to the 
Bar the same year. 
He was elected 
president of the 
Paul Revere Trust 
Co. in 1913, and under his direction the 
deposits increased over 100 per cent. Mr. 
Prest is still in active practice, with offices 
at 27 State Street. He is a member of the 
Boston City Club, the Boston Athletic As- 
sociation, trustee of the Wells Memorial 
Association and Wesleyan Academy, and a 
director of the State Street Trust Co. Mr. 
Prest was appointed a memlier of the Bos- 
ton Excise Commission on August 3, 1916. 

WILLIA^r G. SHILLABER 

William G. Shillaber was born in Boston 
March 13, 1851, the son of Jonas Green and 
Caroline M. (Patten) Shillaber. With the 
exception of a few years when, as a latl, the 
family home was at Sanbornton, N. H., he 
has lived in Boston all his life, now resid- 
ing at 275 Beacon Street. He commenced 
his business career as a clerk in the employ 
of the Rumford Chemical Works of Provi- 
dence, at their Boston office, then under the 
management of Theodore H. Seavey, and 
later became their New England agent. His 
connection with this company covered 
twenty years. Mr. Shillalier retired from 
active business several }-ears ago and has 



since given his time to the care of real 
estate and as executor and trustee of es- 
tates, and has been a director in various cor- 
porations and banks. For thirty years he 
has been much interested in the North End 
Savings Bank, as trustee, vice-president, and 
for the past seven years as its presi- 
dent. He has held public office but once, 
by appointment of Mayor Hibbard, he 
served for five years on the City Hos- 
pital Board of Trustees. He belongs to 
various clubs and societies. His hobby may 
be said to be book collecting, early Ameri- 
cana and Biljles being especially interesting 
to him. The estate, 61 Court Street, where 
his office is, has been in the family since 
1783, and Mr. Shillaber is of the fifth gen- 
eration to occupy the premises. 

NOAH W. JORDAN 

Noah W. Jordan, who rose from a medi- 
ocre position to a commanding place in the 
financial world, was l)orn in Boston, De- 
cember 30, 1846, 
and was educated 
in the public 
schools. He began 
his business career 
with the Suffolk 
Bank in 1863 and 
was connected with 
the National Bank 
of the Republic 
from 1864 until 
1 88 1. From there 
he went to the 
American Trust 
Company as vice- 
president, was 
elected jiresident in 
1900 and made Chairman of the Board of 
Directors in 1907. He is a director of the 
Columbian National Life Insurance Co., 
the American Trust Co., the Boston and 
Worcester Electric Co. and the Great 
Northern Power Co. Mr. Jordan is a mem- 
ber of the Country, Algonquin and Exchange 
Clubs and the Boston Athletic Association. 




NOAH VV. JORDAN 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



219 



CAMDRIDGEPORT SAX'IXGS BANK AXU 11AR\ARU TRUST CU.MPANY 



The handsome huilding at 689 Massachu- 
setts Avenue, which is one of the most im- 
posing in Cambridge, is occupied jointly by 
the Cambridgeport Savings IJank and the 
Harvard Trust Co. 

Frederic W. Tilton is president of tlie 



The Harvard Trust Company has as its 
president \\'alter F. Earle ; vice-presitlent, 
Edward D. Whitford. and treasurer, 
Herl)ert FI. Dyer. 

The company has a capital of $200,000 
and surplus and undivided profits of nearly 




HOME OF THE CAMBRIDGEP :)RT SAVINGS BANK AND THE HARVARD TRUST LJMl'ANY 



first named instituti<in : John R. ( iiles, treas- 
urer; and William W. Dallinger, George A. 
Sawyer and John H. Corcoran are vice- 
presidents. The Bank was incorporated in 
1853. Its system of indiviilual hanks for 
home use has led to the opening of many 
accounts among those who otherwise would 
not have formed habits of thrift. The I>ank 
has a Guarant)' F'und of $329,080; surplus 
$108,075.53, and deposits amounting to 
$6,706,938.05. 



a quarter million tlollars and deposits 
amounting to $2,665,106.34. It acts as ex- 
ecutor, trustee and administrator, and is 
equi]5ped with the most modern safe deposit 
vaults and storage rooms. The Board of 
Directors are : Walter F. Earle, William W. 
Dallinger, \\'arren H. Dunning, Frederic 
W. Tilton, .\lbert M. Barnes, Edward D. 
Whitford, J(jhn H. Corcoran and Edward 
J. I'.randon. The com])any's banking and 
vault facilities are complete in every detail. 



220 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



WALTER S. 
Walter S. Glidden, banker and commis- 
sion merchant, was born in Pittston, Me., 
April 30, 1856, the son of Daniel and Jo- 




WALTER S. GLIDDEN 



hanna ( Dudley) Glidden. He was educated 
in the public schools and at a Inisiness 
college. 

At the age of thirteen he Iiecame a 
printer's apprentice on the Kennebec Re- 
porter, and coming to Boston in 1872, was 
employed in Frank Woods' printing shop. 
He was subsequently with E. F. Stacey in 
Faneuil Hall Market, with W. H. Gleason 
on Shawmut Avenue and with C. E. Bailey 
as manager. After this he organized the 
firm of W. S. Glidden & Co., which dealt 
in meats in the Blackstone Market. He dis- 
posed of this business in 1876, and became 
manager of N. E. Hollis & Co., which posi- 
tion he still retains. 

Mr. Glidden's interests are many and 
varied, yet despite the time required to look 



GLIDDEN 

after these, he is interested in philanthropic 
work, antl a portion of each day is devoted 
to the charitable institutions with which he 
is connected. 

He is president of the Charlestown Five 
Cent Savings Bank, Contractors' Mutual 
Liability Insurance Co., J- H. Whiton 
«& Co., Hinckley Rendering Co., Sands, 
Furber & Co., and L. A. Johnson & 
Co. He is vice-president of the Mutual 
Protective Fire Insurance Co., sole owner 
of the E. T. Barrett Co., Faneuil Hall 
Market, director of the Beacon Trust Co., 
of which he is a member of the execu- 
tive committee, director of the Winter Hill 
Co-operative Bank, the Massachusetts Fire 
and Marine Insurance Co., J. V. Fletcher 
Co., of Faneuil Hall Market, New England 
Dressed Meat and Wool Co., Sturtevant & 
Flaley Beef & Supply Co., and the Swift 
Beef Co. He is president of the Winchester 
Home for Aged Women, the Hunt Asylum 
for Destitute Children, and trustee of the 
Somerville Hospital and the Somerville 
Home for the Aged. He was a member of 
the Governor's Council of Massachusetts 
from 1908 until 191 1, and is a 32nd degree 
Mason. 

At the present time he holds member- 
sliip in the Ijoston Chamber of Commerce, 
the Boston Produce Exchange, the Indepen- 
dent Order of Odd Fellows, the Algonquin 
and Belmont Country Clubs of Boston, and 
the Central of Somerville. 

In politics he is a Republican, but beyond 
membership in the Governor's Council, has 
never held a pulilic position. 

His home is in Somerville, Mass., and his 
business address, 5 1 North Market Street. 



THK BOOK OF BOSTON 



221 



BOWEX TUFTS 
Bowen Tufts, who at a cuniparatively 
early age has risen to a position uf promi- 
nence in the financial workl, was born 
^^^^^^^^^^^^ June 17, 1884, at 
^^^PP|5^^^^^^^| Somerville, Mass. 
^^V -JHIM^^^H ^^ ^^'^^ educated in 

^B _^ ^ii^^B^ '^f Somerville, and 
^W Y^^ '^'^ '""'•'^'- position 

Bj*' ^ was with tlic firm 

^■"~" k of Jose, i'arkcT X; 

^^^^^ ^^^^^ C<i.. hankers, 

^^^^f\ ^^^^H 1899. firm 

1^ /# ^^^^^^1 eventually 

C D. Parker & Co.. 
and Mr. Tufts 
hnalK' attained the 
position of vice- 
president, director 
and manager. In 
addition to this interest, Mr. Tufts is a 
director and trustee in a score of electric, 
gas, water-power and street railwax- cimi- 
panies. He holds nieml>ership in the Ex- 
change, Engineers, Belmont diuntry, and 
Boston Yacht Clubs and Masonic Fraternity. 



r 



BOWEN TUFTS 



J.\MES JACKSON 
James Jackson, secretary of the State 
Street Trust Company, was born April 21, 
1 88 1, in Boston, and received his prepara- 
tory education at 
the Groton School, 
Grot o n , ^lass., 
after which he en- 
tered Harvard Col- 
lege and grailuated 
in 1904. One year 
I later he became as- 
sociated A\ilh the 
banking tirni of 
Lee, Iligginson &: 
Co., re m a i n i n g 
with that well- 
kuDwn house imtil 
he was chosen vicc- 
prcsidi-nt nf the 
j\M,^ j.\cKsox |K^,i j,jeverc Trust 

Co., a position he retained until amalgama- 




tiiin with the State Street Trust Company. 
Mr. Jackson conies of old New England 
ancestry, the founder of the family in 
America being one of the first settlers of 
Newburyport. He is a memlier of the 
Somerset, Tennis and Raccjuet, and several 
other clubs, and is active in the Good Gov- 
ernment Association. 




STATE STREET TRUST COMPANY 
3 J STATE STREET 



222 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ALLEN A. BROWN 

I was first attracted to Allen A. Brown 
by his intense interest in music and the 
drama. This was mam- vears as;o, at a time 




ALLEN A. BROWN 



when he conducted a stationery store on 
State Street, and the devotion he then 
showed to musical and dramatic affairs has 
never waned, but has grown stronger with 
the passage of years, until now he is rec- 
ognized as an authority and has, in the in- 
tervening years, worked assiduously to 
create interest in these arts. He has con- 
tributed largely to make accessible such 
works as will Ijenefit students and all others, 
and his deep interest is manifested by his 
visits to the Public Library, to the musical 
and dramatic departments of which he de- 
votes three days each week. Mr. Brown 
was born in Boston July 26, 1835, and re- 
ceived his preliminary education in the 
])ublic schools of that city and in Roxbury. 
He afterwards entered Harvard University, 
from which he graduated in 1856, with the 
A.B. degree. Two years after leaving col- 
lege he became a clerk in a State Street 
stationery store, and with that irrepressible 
force that has marked his entire career, rose 



to ownership and continued in the business 
for many years. He was subsecjuently ap- 
pointed trustee of a large estate, and his 
selection for this important position led to 
other work along the same lines, until he 
finally decided to retire from commercial 
pursuits and devote his entire time to the 
work that had come to him unexpectedly 
and unsought. At the present time, at the 
age of eighty, he is contemplating retire- 
ment from all business connections and de- 
voting his remaining years to pleasure and 
rest. Mr. Brown was never married. He 
is the son of Nathan and Ann (Haggett) 
Brown, and comes of an old English stock. 
His forbears settled at Salem and Ips- 
wich in 1635 and figured largely in 
Colonial history. He is interested in sev- 
eral commercial enterprises, in the direc- 
tion of which he is most active, being 
president and director of the Buzzards 
Bay Electric Co., Vineyard Haven Gas and 
Electric Light Co., and the Vineyard Light- 
ing Co. Mr. Brown is a member of the 
Harvard Musical Association and formerly 
held membership in several similar organi- 
zations, from which he resigned. His ac- 
tivity demanded that he should be a factor 
in these associations, but the pressure of 
private business was such that he could not 
devote sufficient time to them, and rather 
than he considered a drone, he relinquished 
membership. The culmination of Mr. 
Brown's activities along art lines was when 
he announced his intention of presenting 
to the Public Library collections of works 
on music and the drama. No expense was 
spared by him in selecting these collections, 
and the works now on the shelves of the 
Public Library bear silent testimony to his 
voluminous knowledge of the subjects and 
his generosity in making the selections. 
Mr. Brown is also intensely interested in 
philanthropic work, and his charities, 
vhich are of a private nature, have been 
many and most liberal. His offices are at 
27 School Street and he resides at the Hotel 
Clifford, 25 Cortes Street. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON' 



223 



HORNBLOWER & WEEKS 



HORNBLQWER & WEEKS BUJLDINC 
BOSTON. MASS. 




t S S i fl^i^i^ 




THE HORNBLOWER & WEEKS BUILDING 



At the ciiriier of Congress ami Water 
Streets, on the site where A\'ilHain JJnyd 
Garrison first ])uhHslie(l The Liberator m 
1 83 1, stands the new 1 Idrnhldw er iV Weeks 
l)nil(hn_<,^ ereeted in 1908. 

The Iniilding is a modern six-story stone 
strncture, with steel frame and hglit Bed- 
ford limestone facings. The ontside has 
Ijeen treated with simplicity, the object heing 
to attract attention not bv an abnndance of 



decoration, but rather by its absence. The 
building presents a structure of well propor- 
tioned lines and spaces which depend for 
their artistic effect upon symmetry, with 
oid\- the corniced top bearing any extensive 
ornamentation. The main entrance is at 
50 Congress Street, and the wlmle building 
is designed with es])ecial attention to lighting 
and ventilation facilities. The Company has 
offices in Boston, New York and Chicago. 



224 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



OTIS W. HOLMES 

Otis \y. Holmes, efficiency expert, operat- 
ing under the name of O. W. Holmes Co., 
was born in Milford, Mass., February 6, 




OTIS W. HOLMES 



1870. He was educated in the public and 
high schools of his native city, but his real 
knowledge was gained by hard experience 
that fitted him for the particular line of 
work that has been his life study — that is, 
efficiency in relation to mechanical prodttcts 
from the raw material in the factories to 
the finished commodity. Mr. Holmes is an 
auditor and accountant, but pays little at- 
tention to this work except in cases where 
it aids production. He is a skilled machinist, 
having started with the Draper Company in 
1886, and his work is almost entirely along 
the line of mechanical economics and inven- 
tive engineering. In this connection he has 
done some of the most important work in the 
largest manufactories of New England, 
formulating plans and erecting special ma- 
chinery to reduce cost and ofttimes making 
successful alterations on machines that were 
unsatisfactory and i)uzzling to the build- 
ers themselves. Mr. Holmes comes of old 
New England ancestry. His grandmother 



Holmes and ex-Governor Claflin were first 
cousins, and the paternal line was connected 
with the Clevelands, who founded Cleve- 
land, Ohio. He is a member of the Boston 
Chamber of Commerce, Boston City Club, 
Boston Rotary Club, the Hunnewell Club of 
Newton, the Society of Arts of the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology. He is also 
a member of Fraternity Lodge F. & A. M. 
of Newtonville. Mr. Holmes is a Repub- 
lican in politics but joined the Progressives 
in 191 2. He was Delegate to the National 
Progressive Convention in 19 16. His 
offices are at 15 State Street. 




BOSTON MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY BUILDING 
77 KILBY STREET 

A rapidly growing company, established 
for the mutual protection and prosperity of 
the citizens of Boston and New England. 



THE ROOK OF BOSTON 



T) 



ly 



JOHN HANCOCK MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 



The John Hancock ]\Iutiial Life Insur- 
ance Coinpau)-, named after the Revohi- 
tionary jiatriot, John Hancock, was incor- 
porated l)y tile State of Massachusetts, April 
21, 1862. It was I)acked liy a guaranteed 
capital of $100,000, which was retired alimit 



the original building; a view is given here. 
It o|jerates in eighteen States, with a large 
nienibershij) of policyholders. At the close 
of business on December 31. 10 L^' there 
were shown assets of $127,361,388.95, lia- 
liilities of $119,631,183.67, and unassigned,. 






■*■■ - 


^-H*. 


?ii- 


'^ 


'^r 


T. 


■^1 




"r-. 

B W 


ra 


71 


13 






'■^, 



*vt^:i 



n >i V 



75 lilt 

ri K n 




JOHN HANCOCK lUIlAL LI] I. IX^lltANCE COMPANY 1UIII>IN'C 



ten years later. The first office of the com- 
pany was at 41 State Street, Boston, and 
the Company received the certificate of the 
Insurance Department tn issue pnlicies on 
December 8, 1862. ( )n Februarv jt,, 1891, 
the Company moved to its in\n build- 
ing, 178 Devonshire and 35 Federal 
Streets, remaining in these (|uarters ever 
since. A new building has been added to 



or .safety funds of $7,730,205.28. The pay- 
ments to policyholders which the Company 
has made since its organization, together 
with the accumulated reserves now held for 
the lienefit of present policyholders, equal 
the sum of $262,378,375. It is one of the 
largest life insurance com]ianies in the coun- 
try, has no capital stock, and is o])erated 
solely in the interests of its polic_\holders. 



■226 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



BOSTON INSURANCE COMPANY 




/: 











BUILDING OF THE BOSTON INSURANCE COMPANY 
CORNER KILBY AND MILK STREETS 



The "Boston Marine Insurance Company" 
Avas incorporated in 1873 to conduct an ex- 
'Clusively marine business. In March, 1886, 
the Company was authorized to write fire 
insurance, hut not until April, 1896, was fire 
miderwritint^- actually begun. In April, 1898, 
the name of the Company was changed to 
the "Boston Insurance Company," by delet- 
ing the word "Marine," that its name might 
the better correspond with the increasing 
field of its operations. AutimKjbile and 
Tourist Baggage insurance also forms a part 



of its business. The need of more room for 
expansion resulted in the erection of a new 
building, of polished granite and limestone 
(as shown in the aljove cut), and u])on its 
completion in April, 1914, the Company 
moved to its new quarters. 

From the time of the organization of the 
Company, Mr. Ronsom B. Fuller has held 
the office of President and still continues in 
that position, he having secured the incor- 
poration, and to his efforts the success of the 
Company may be attributed. 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 



Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER XI\' 

EDUCATIONAL AD\ ANT AGES OE BOSTON 




Development of the Learxed Ixstitutions, Colleges, Art and ^Iusic Schools — 
Ltbrarh;s that Have I-Ikotght Boston Wide Recognition as a Great 

Educational Centre 




YT jP^C^^^ ^I ^^' advancement oi the 
hi^jher educatinnal institu- 
tiiins in the past halt cen- 
tur\- has liad a marked 
effect upun the Cit}-'s 
standing as an educational 
centre. Fifty years ago there were luit two 
higher institutions in the Cit\', and these 
were both very young. There were notable 
libraries, learned societies, and literary in- 
stitutions which gave Boston its fame for 
culture; but these were small in numljer and 
not of large growth. 

The two higher educational establishments 
were the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology in the Back Ba}\ and the Roman 
Catholic Boston College at the South End. 
The storv of the rise and rapid progress of 
the Institute, or "Tech." as it is fondly 
called — one of the earliest technical schools 
in the countrv and todav the foremost 
institutiou of its kind — is one of the fascin- 
ating chapters of Boston's educational his- 
tory. Before building on the "New Lands" 
was liegun, and the establishment here of 
the City's finer institutions was agitated, an 
association of gentlemen who called them- 
selves the "Conmiittee of Associateil Insti- 
tutions of Science and Art," was formed to 
secure from the State a grant of land in 
this (|uartcr for buildings for various in- 
stitutions, among them the Boston Society 
of Natural History and the ^Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society, representing the in- 
dustrial and fine arts, the purpose being to 
institute a Conservatorv of Art and Science. 



This movement was made in 1859. Al- 
though it was not successful, the Legislature 
declining to grant the petition for land, it 
led directly to the establishment of the In- 
stitute of Technology. The next year, i860, 
following the rejection of its petition, the 
Committee of Associated Institutions gave 
its endorsement to a memorial from Pro- 
fessor William B. Rogers in the establish- 
ment of "a School of Applied Sciences, or a 
comprehensive polytechnic college, fitted to 
equip its students with the scientific and 
technical principles applicable to industrial 
pursuits." The Rogers memorial also failed, 
in the Legislature of i860. Then Professor 
Rogers outlined to the Committee a definite 
plan for the formation of an Institute of 
Technology having "the triple organization 
of the Society of .Vrts, a Museum or Con- 
servatory of Arts, and a School of Indus- 
trial Science and Art." This the Committee 
most heartily forwarded in cooperation with 
a committee at large composed of twenty 
representative citizens. Professor Rogers 
was made chairman of the latter committee, 
antl as a result of his energetic action, an act 
of incorporation was obtained from the 
Legislature of 1861, and a grant of land 
secured for the buildings of the new insti- 
tutions: and also for a building for the old 
institution, the Natural History Society, 
dating from 1831, then occu])ying with its 
Museum and Liljrary the building on ]\Iason 
Street, now housing the Boston School 
Board. ( )f the ground granted, Ijounded by 
Boylston, Berkele}', Newbury, and Claren- 



228 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



don Streets, the Natural History Society was 
given the easterly one-third, and the Insti- 
tute the remaining two-thirds. The Natural 
History Building was the first to be erected, 
■ — in 1864. Tech was organized with Pro- 
fessor Rogers as president immediately 
after the charter was obtained : the Society 
of Arts being first formed in 1862, and the 
School of Industrial Science first opened in 
1865 (in the Mercantile Library Liuikling 
then on Summer Street), so that the insti- 
tution was well under way when the main 
building — the present Rogers Building of 
old-time dignity — was finished and read)- for 
occupancy in 1866. The first class, compris- 



individuals, one of the chief benefactors 
being Doctor William J. Walker of New- 
I)ort, Rhode Island, who also was a generous 
giver during his lifetime and Ijy his will to 
the Natural History Society; while in 1863, 
the Legislature had granted it a third of the 
annual income received from the fund 
created under the Act of Congress giving 
public lands to the States in aid of instruc- 
tion in agriculture, mechanic arts, and mili- 
tar\' science and tactics, the condition lieing 
that the Institute should provide for instruc- 
tion in military tactics. Early the Rogers 
Building was outgrown: other buildings in 
the neighborhood were occupied ; and in 





WILLIAM BARTON ROGERS 
FIRST PRESIDENT OF TECH 

Who had courage to go ahead with the 

Rogers Building when he had 

only fifteen students 



RICHARD COCKBURN MACLAURIN 
today's PRESIDENT OF TECH 

Who has financed the new Technology 
and has maintained its Educa- 
tional Standards 



^^^^^^B^^^*^ ■ f f f iff if f ^1* ■ ■•■ ' 
^^^H liiilllil iiiiii 


, i^^^B 






1 



THE NEW TECHNOLOGY ON THE CHARLES RIVER PARKWAY, CAMBRIDGE 



ing a half dozen young men, was graduated 
in 1868. Thereafter the growth of the in- 
stitution A\as marvellously rapid. It was 
favored from the start bv liljeral aid from 



1884 the Walker Building, named for the 
generous donor of Newport, was added to 
the Institute's grounds. Professor Rogers 
lived to enjoy the full fruition of his noble 



TIIK BOOK OF BOSTON 



229 



work, and he tlied, in June, 1882, literally 
in harness, within his Ijeloved institution 
(and on the very day and hour of the grad- 
iiation of one of the largest classes it had 
sent out), Ijefore a distinguished audience, 
just as he was beginning the deliver)- of his 
annual address. The Institute had then come 
to embrace the School of Industrial Science, 
devoted to the teaching of science as ap- 
plied to the various engineering professions, 
as well as to architecture, chemistry, metal- 
lurgy, physics, biology, and geology ; the 



his success(_)r as jiresident, ljr(_)Ught the in- 
stitution Ijy rapid strides to an unrivalled 
position; Henry S. Pritchett, who followed 
(ieneral Walker, continued its wise develop- 
ment : while under the administration of the 
])resent presitlent. Richard C. Maclaurin, 
Tech, now surpassed Ijv no other school of 
the kind in the world, erected its new home, 
the "great white city," on the banks of the 
Charles, Cambridge side, in the heart of 
the picturesque Charles River IJasin, the 
group of white buildings stretching along 



'^Ht0^^ 



•m^ 









.V *>:^r* 



V -*in-»,, ^•r' 



r-^y-r 




BOSTON COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, BOSTON 



Lowell School of Practical Design, estab- 
lished in 1872, by the trustees of the Lowell 
Institute for the purpose of "promoting in- 
dustrial art in the United States" ; and the 
Society of Arts, the latter holding meetings 
semi-monthh', and pul)lishing its Pr(\)ceed- 
ings annually. The Institute, opening in Feb- 
ruary, 1867, with seven pupils, registered at 
the time of President Rogers' death nearl\- 
a thousand. Professor Rogers retired 
from the otifice of president in 1870, and 
was succeeded by Professor John D. Runkle, 
but in 1S78 he was reappointed to the posi- 
tion. The Institute is fittingly called his 
monument. General Francis A. Walker, 



the river side for more than an eighth of a 
mile. The splendor of the picture which the 
"white city," with its pillars and domes, pre- 
sents, is seen from the heights of Beacon 
Hill, looking down quaint Pinckney Street. 
The Institute was enabled to undertake this 
great work through the sumptuous gifts 
that came to it after the fiftieth anniversary 
of its founding, April, 191 1, from alumni 
and other benefactors, a total of seven mil- 
lion, five hundred and thirty thousand dol- 
lars. At the fiftieth anniversary the Boston 
])lant comprised, besides the Rogers and 
Walker Buildings on the Institute's original 
plot, the Engineering Building, on Trinity 



230 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Place, built in 1889, and its neighbor, the 
Henry L. Pierce Building, of later date, 
provided for in the will of Henr}' L. Pierce, 
who died in 1896; the Workshops, with the 
quarters of the Lowell School of Design, 
the latter erected in 1885, on Garrison 
Street; and the Gynniasium and Drill Hall, 
on Exeter Street. The roll of students of the 
Institute in 19 15 had reached the impressive 
total of I goo. 



markable for elaborateness of design and 
richness of interior; the college was severely 
plain with no attempt at architectural dis- 
play. In the course of time the growing 
institution outgrew the South End establish- 
ment, and at length a new plant of hand- 
some structures on a handsome site, near 
the Brighton District, just over the Newton 
line and overlooking the Chestnut Hill res- 
ervoir, was erected, and removal made to 




BOSTON UNIVERSITY THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS ON THE LEFT 



Boston College was founded in i860 by 
the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, to be 
conducted by them. In 1863 it was incor- 
porated by the Legislature with power to 
"confer such degrees as are usually con- 
ferred by colleges in the Commonwealth, 
except medical degrees." Its buildings were 
of a notable group on Harrison Avenue be- 
tween East Springfield and Concord Streets, 
— the Boston City Hospital on the East side 
of the avenue, the Church of the Immacu- 
late Conception and Boston College on the 
West side. Both church and college were 
completed in 1 860-1 861. The church is re- 



"University Heights," as the site was fit- 
tingly named, in 1914. 

During the last year of the 'sixties Boston 
University was chartered, and, with abun- 
dant means contributed by rich and generous 
Methodists, it had started into operation 
early in the 'seventies a full-fledged uni- 
versity, with its academic department, and 
graduate and professional schools, several of 
the latter ready made. There were the Col- 
lege of Liberal Arts, for both sexes, organ- 
ized in 1873; the School of All Sciences — 
the Graduate School — organized in 1874; 
the Theological, Medical, and Law Schools 



THE BOOK OF ROSTOX 



2M 



and the ScIuhiIs of ^lusic and of Oratory. 
The School of Theology was the first de- 
partment to be established, which was ac- 
comijlished by the simple process of taking 
over an old institution, the Boston Theologi- 
cal Seminary, dating back to 1839, one of 
the oldest schools of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. Later in the year 1872, the 
School of Law was openetl. Then in 1873 
the departments were completed with the es- 



profcssional schools were scattered in vari- 
ous parts of the City. In less than a decade 
the College of Liberal Arts had quite out- 
grown its contracted cjuarters, and in 1882 
the trustees had erected a main University 
Building for its occupation, and as the 
universit}' headquarters. This University 
Building was on Somerset Street (now the 
home of the Boston Lodge of the Order of 
h.lks ), and occupied the site, and utilized the 




T}IE YARD Ai liAR\AKD. LAMUKIDOE, MASS. 

THIS WORLD FA.MOIS UNIVERSITY, REALLY A BOSTON INSTITUTION, IS LOCATED 

IN THE ADJOINING CITY OF CAMBRIDGE 



tablishment of the College of Liberal Arts, 
the School of Oratory, and the School of 
^Medicine ; the latter the Homeopathic Medi- 
cal College connected with the Massachusetts 
Homeopathic Hospital, at the South End. 
The College of LiJjeral Arts and the uni- 
versity headquarters were at the outset 
cstal)lished in a s])acious old-time dwelling- 
house then on Beacon Street, nearly opposite 
the opening of Bowdoin Street; while the 



side walls, of the old Somerset-Street I5ap- 
tist Church, — the descendant of the First 
Baptist Church, long known in its day as 
"Dr. Neale's Church" — the Reverend Rollin 
H. Neale, its minister for forty years, — and 
famous for its spire, which, from the 
heights of the site, reached the tallest in 
town. The new building \vas formally 
named "Jacob Sleeper Hall," in honor of 
jacol) Sleeper, one of the three founders, or 



232 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



the original corporators, of the university, 
— Lee Claflin. Jaco!) Sleeper, and Isaac 
Rich, the last named its greatest benefactor 




DR. SAMUEL S. CURRY 

ONE OF boston's well-known educators 

who left by his will his entire estate, after 
the payment of certain other bequests and 
claims, from which the institution realized, 
instead of a million and more, about seven 
hundred thousand dollars, the property hav- 
ing depreciated through the "Great Fire" of 
1872. With the erection of the University 
Building, or about that time, the Law 
School, which had started in rooms on the 
South side of Ashburton Place, occupied 
the Mount Vernon Church building on the 
North side; while the Theological School 
became sumptuously housed on Mount Ver- 
non Street in the block of two heavy stone 
mansions erected in the 'fifties for the 
brothers, John E. and Nathaniel Thayer, 
the eminent merchants, and benefactors of 
Harvard College. In 1914-1915 the stone 
Chapel, in connection with the school, was 
erected in the deep yard of the mansions, 
facing Chestnut Street. In 1908 the Col- 
lege of Liberal Arts and the University 
headquarters moved into a new University 



Building, or Jacob Sleeper Hall, on the 
Back Bay, on Boylston Street, adjoining 
the Boston Public Librarv. This was the 
former building of the Harvard IMedical 
School, remodelled and enlarged, which the 
university purchased upon the Medical 
School's removal to its new quarters, the 
impressive group of buildings on Longwood 
Avenue beside the Fens. In 19 13 the Col- 
lege of Business Administration was added 
to the university's professional schools. 
The first president of Boston University, 
William F. Warren, retired in the fullness 
of 3'ears and at the height of the prosperity 
of the institution, when he was made Presi- 
dent Emeritus. His successor was Doctor 
William E. Huntington, now dean of the 
Graduate School ; and Doctor Huntington 
was succeeded by the present president, 
Doctor Lemuel H. Murlin, under whose ad- 
ministration the growth and usefulness of 
the universit}- continues prosperously. The 
enrollment of students for 1916 numbered 
twent\'-six hundred. 

In 1873 the Massachusetts Normal Art 
School was established by act of the Legis- 
lature, primarily as a training-school to 
qualify teachers to carry out the provisions 
of a law passed three years before, making 
free instruction in drawing ol)ligatory in the 
public schools in cities and towns of the 
State of over ten thousand inhabitants. 
While a training-school was its specific ob- 
ject, however, it also aimed to provide for 
high skill in technical drawing, and for in- 
dustrial art culture : and was opened to stu- 
dents other than teachers. It was a State 
institution with a Boston flavor. Professor 
Walter Smith, an Englishman, coming from 
London with a reputation as a superior art 
instructor, was made the director, or prin- 
cipal, of the school. At that time Professor 
Smith was director of drawing in the Bos- 
ton public schools. Beginning in a small 
way, the institution, under Professor Smith's 
masterly hand, tleveloped rapidly. Its first 
quarters were the upper floor of a dwelling- 
house in Pemberton Square, just turned 
over for business uses. These quarters 
were soon outgrown and removal was made 
to larger ones in a building on School Street. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



233 



Soon the School-Street quarters were out- 
grown, and another removal was necessary. 
This was made to the South End, where a 
whole house was occupied. This house was 
a local landmark known as the "Deacon 
House," from the lamilv for win mi it was 
originally built, in the 'fifties: a villa of 
brick, an earl_\- exemplar in this country of 
the French-roof style of architecture, frcm 
designs of a French architect, M. Lemoul- 
nier, set in a large enclosure bounded by 
three streets, with scitiare entrance lodge, 
stable, and other outbuildings. The Dea- 
con Hcuise in its turn was soon out'jrown. 



between him and the Board of \'isitors 
representing the Board of Education, and 
a long investigatiiiu having been made 
before a committee of the Legislature, he 
retired. His successor was Otto Fuchs, who 
had been assistant professor of drawing in 
the United States Naval Academy ; and Pro- 
fessor Fuchs in turn was succeeded by 
(ieorge H. Bartlett. The school has become 
one of the largest of its kind. 

In iSSo the St. John's Theological Sem- 
inary, Roman Catholic, was founded, and 
in 1885 opened to students. Its secluded 
grounds comprise a beautiful estate, for- 




>l.MM!..N^ LULLLOL 



Meanwhile in 1879, the State had set aside 
a lot in its part of the "New Lands," on the 
Southwest corner of Exeter and Newljury 
Streets, for a building for this school, and 
in 1 886- 1 887 the structure was erected and 
occupied. This is the present well-designed 
Normal Art School Building, now out- 
grown. The State Board of Education, 
under whose direction the school works, is 
talking of the need of a larger and more 
nuxlern structure, so that the school may 
soon remove to a spacious new site on Com- 
monwealth Avenue, near Cottage Farm, there 
occupying handsome new Iniildings. Walter 
Smith remained the ])rincipal of the school 
till 1882, when difficulties having arisen 



merly a country seat in the Brighton dis- 
trict on Lake Street, consisting of many 
acres of parti;ill\- wiKuletl land. Its building, 
of massive walls and turrets, a quadrangular 
structure, in the Norman style of architec- 
ture, has been pronounced proljably unsur- 
passed for its purpose in this ccnintry. 

In 1899 Simmons College, for women, to 
pro\ ide instruction in stich "branches of art, 
science, and industr}-" as "best calculated to 
enable its pupils to acquire an independent 
livelihood," was chartered, and shortly was 
o])ened to students. This beneficent insti- 
tution was provided for in the will of John 
.Simmons, a riost<in merchant, who died in 
1870. lie was the lirst to begin the manu- 



234 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



facture of ready-made clothing, in the 
'thirties, which became one of the large in- 
dustries of the City. Mr. Simmons left a 
sum of money to found the college, but the 
institution was not to be established until a 
specified period after his death, when the 
sum, in the hands of trustees, should ac- 
cumulate, through investment, to a sub- 
stantial figure. In 1899 it amounted to 
upward of a million and a half. Mr. Sim- 
mons' scheme comprehended the "Simmons' 
Female College" for the teaching, among 
other "branches of art, science, and indus- 
try," medicine, nuisic, drawing, designing, 
and telegraphy. The college buildings, on 
the Fenway, next beyond "Fenway Court," 
Mrs. Jack Gardner's "Venetian Palace," 
are among the most attractive educational 
groups in the city. 

In 1904 the Wentworth Institute, a school 
of "the mechanical arts," with day and eve- 
ning courses, provided for in the will of 
another Boston merchant, Arioch Went- 
worth, was chartered, and the erection of 
its buildings and its work were begun 
in 1913. These buildings, now a notable 
group, occupy an ample enclosure on Hunt- 
ington Avenue, at the corner of Ruggles 
Street, nearly opposite the Museum of Fine 
Arts. 

The Suffolk Law School, founded in 
1906 liy Gleason L. Archer, occupies most 
comfortable quarters at 45 Mt. Vernon 



Street. The School is truly cosmopolitan,, 
and as classes extend until 9 p.m., it has a 
roll of young men who are able to attend 
evening classes, as well as a splendid day 
attendance. 

Fifty years ago, while the educational in- 
stitutions of the City were few, the honest 
scholar, student, researcher, writer, were 
hospital)ly received in the great libraries,, 
puljlic and proprietary, for which Boston 
was then famous — the Boston Public Li- 
brary, the Boston Athenreum, the Boston 
Lil)rary, the Mercantile Library, the libra- 
ries of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
the New England Historic Genealogical So- 
ciety, the Massachusetts Horticultural Soci- 
ety, the Boston Society of Natural History; 
and the most valuable library of Harvard 
University. In the half century that has 
passed, all these libraries, with the exception 
of the Mercantile Library, have increased to 
large proportions, and the same liberality in 
their use is shown resident and visitor as of 
yore. It is probably true that within a ra- 
dius of twenty miles of Boston there are 
more books publicly available than in any 
similar area elsewhere in the world. There 
are not less than five million volumes, and 
probably a good many more — the Boston 
Public Library, the Harvard University 
Library, and the Boston Athenjeum con- 
taining three million and a half of these. 

So Boston is still a treasure house for 
American scholars and students. 




PERKINS INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND 



Fouiuk-il ill 1829, by Dr. Samuel G. Howe. A feature of South Boston's 

early development. Celelirateil among the students here 

have been Laura Briili;man and Helen Keller 



236 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



LELAND T. POWERS 




LELAND T. PCWERS 
HEAD OF THE LELAND POWERS SCHOOL OF THE SPOKEN WORD 



Leland T. P(j\vers, founder and principal 
of the Leland Powers School of the Spoken 
Word, was born January 28, 1857, in Pult- 
neyville. N. Y. After graduating from 
Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., in 1875, 
lie entered the Boston University School of 
Oratory, where he received his training as 
a professional public reader and teacher of 
the speech arts. 

Mr. Powers first wnn public notice in 
1884 for his uni(|ue ability to present drama, 
impersonating all the different characters 
himself. He was the first man on the 
Lyceum platform in America to do this 
thing, and his engagements spread from 
New England into the far West, into the 
South and into Canada. Between 1890 and 
1900 he was the highest paid man in the 
Lyceum field. During that time his busi- 



ness was under the management of the Red- 
path L}ceum Bureau of Boston. In 1904 
he founded the school which bears his name. 
Its aim is to train young men and women in 
all branches of the speech arts, and to fit 
them l)oth f(.)r public platform work and 
to take charge of Departments of Public 
Speaking in schools, colleges and universi- 
ties. In 19 14 the school was able to erect a 
l)uilding of its own in the Fenway, near the 
Girls' Latin School. The building was de- 
signed l)y M. Allen Jackson, architect. It 
is characterized by artistic beauty and sim- 
plicity in design and arrangement. The 
building is pure colonial in style, built of 
limestone and brick. The first floor is occu- 
pied by the school offices, a reception hall 
and a little theatre with a seating capacity of 
three hundred and fift\-. On the second and 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



237 



third flocirs are the six lar<;e class rooms, 
h,<;lit, airv and properly ventilated. The 
school buildiiis;- is situated (Hi a heautiful 
parkwav, right in the centre ot Boston's 
"educational and institutional section." 
Directlv surnntnding it are the Boston Girls' 
Xdrnial School. "Fenway Court," Boston 
Museum of I-'ine Arts. Simmons College, 
the Harvard Medical School buildings and 
the Boston Opera House. The institution 
has an enrollment of one hundred and 
twent}- students, who come from all parts 
of the United States and Canatla, and the 
increasing favor \\ith \\hich the graduates 
are received, lioth as readers and as teach- 
ers, proves conclusively that the jirinciples 
taught are sound and practical and produce 
decided and agreeable results. The work is 
definite, concentrated, practical and per- 
sonal. The jirijcesses of instruction are 



revelatory and self-discovering, rather than 
arl)itrar\- and academic, and the work is vo- 
cational as well as cultural. It provides a 
means of earning one's living. The gradu- 
ates are well equipped teachers of reading 
and ])ublic speaking, and intelligent trainers 
of the speaking" voice. Into whatever field 
of activity a graduate of Leland Powers 
School is cast he is able to emiiody his ideas 
— to l)ring theiu into effective demonstra- 
ti n. He has learned how to effectuate his 
thought, his idea, his plan, with the fewest 
waste motions. Efficienc\- in whatever ac- 
ti\it\- he is engaged is the result. The fac- 
ultv of the school is large and efficient, both 
Mr. and Mrs. Powers being included in the 
number, and giving personal supervision to 
the work. Mr. Powers resides in Brook- 
line, and is a member of the Boston Art 
Club, Boston ^'acllt Club and the Fcijiiomic 
Club. 




LELAND POWERS SCHOOL OF THE SPOKEN WORD 
FENWAY, CORNER TETLOW STREET 



238 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



THOMAS H. RATIGAN 

Thomas H. Ratigan, of tlie insurance firm 
of John C. Paige & Co., was born in Rox- 
l)ury, Mass., July i6, 1867, the son of 




THOMAS H. RATIGAN 



Thomas and Ellen Ratigan. He received 
his education in the public schools of Bos- 
ton and, after two years in the English 
High School, entered the employ of the 
late John C. Paige. Mr. Ratigan soon ob- 
tained a practical knowledge of every detail 
of the business and was advanced to suc- 
ceeding positions of increasing responsi- 
bility until he was admitted to partnership 
in the firm in 1912. This firm is conceded 
to be a leader in the insurance business of 
the city, and it now represents, as agents, 
many of the leading American and foreign 
companies, Iiesides controlling many large 
brokerage accounts throughout the countrv. 
In addition to his interest in John C. 
Paige & Co., Mr. Ratigan is a trustee of the 
Union Institution of Savings and a director 
of the Metropolitan Co-operative Bank. He 
holds membership in the Boston Athletic 
Association, the Engineers Club, the 
Luncheon Club, the Wollaston Golf Club, the 
Point Shirley Club, the Boston Yacht Club, 



Ten-of-us Club, Boston Chaml^er of Com- 
merce, Knights of Columbus, the Catholic 
Club of New York City, is a past president 
of the Clover Club of Boston and First 
Lieutenant of the Ancient and Honorable 
Artillery Co. He is also an associate mem- 
ber of E. W. Kingsley Post 113, G. A. R. 
His offices are at 65 Killjy Street, and his 
residence at 6 Eric Avenue, Dorchester. 

GEORGE \V. HAVENS 

While yet in his minority, George W. 
Havens entered the insurance business in 
1 88 1 with John C. Paige, 20 Kilby Street, 
Boston, and for many years acted as private 
secretary to Mr. Paige. With his natural 
power of concentration and close observa- 
tion, he received a theoretical grounding in 
all the elements of the business. The office 
of John C. Paige has probably graduated 
more executive and managing officials than 
that of any other office in the United States. 
After Mr. Paige's death, Mr. Havens re- 
tained his connection with the office, but de- 




GEORCE W. HAVENS 



voted his activities to field work, in which 
he progressed very rapidly. In 1903, he 
severed this connection to become resident 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



239 



iiKinagLT of tilt- ^Maryland Casualty Coin- 
])any of Baltimore, I\[<I., in whicli capacity 
he served eleven years. In l-'ebruary, 1915, 
he was admitted to partnership in the large 
and inipiirtant firm of Simiison, Campljell 
& Co., which represents, as managers for 
New luigland, the following companies: 
American Central Insurance Co. of St. 
Louis, Mo.; Detroit Fire and ATarine 
Insurance Co. of Detroit, ]\lich. ; Michi- 
gan Fire and Marine Insurance Co. 
of Detroit, Mich., Mercantile Fire and 
^Marine Underwriters Agency, and for 
Massachusetts, Maine and Xew Hampshire, 
the Alaryland Casualty Company of Balti- 
more, Md. Simultaneous with his admis- 
sion ti.) the firm of Simpson, Camjjhell & Co., 
the partnership of Simpson, Campbell, 
Havens & Co. was formed to represent as 
general agents of Boston and the Metro- 
politan District all of the above-mentioned 
companies. The importance of the last step 
of progress in Mr. Haven's career is evi- 
dent when it is realized that these two firms 
are now passing through their office a busi- 
ness closely approximating one million dol- 
lars in premiums per annum. He has been 
a close student of the casualty lines all his 
life and they have now become a most im- 
portant factor in the Ijusiness of insurance. 
i\Ir. Havens is vice-president of the Massa- 
chusetts Casualtx' Association, a member of 
the lioston Cit\- Cluli, \\'oodland Golf Club, 
Knights of Columbus, Catholic Union of 
Boston, Irish Charitable Society, Young- 
Men's Catholic Association and the Ba_\- 
State Automobile Association. In p(.ilitics he 
is a Democrat, but does not confine himself 
strictl}' to part}' lines when in his estimation 
the candidate of any oi)posite ])i)litical 
party is more worthy of his su])piirt. 
He has never held jiolitical office, altln mgh 
many times he has been urged to enter the 
field in one capacity or another. 



Boston is a city of patriotic traditions and 
ancient land marks. It is also a great seat 
of educational institutions, a ])ublishing 
centre, and a luxurious city in which flour- 
ishes authorship, music, architecture and 
art. 



JAMFS H. BRENNAN 

James H. Ih-ennan, one of the cit\'s suc- 
cessful real estate operators, was born in 
Roxbury. Mass., February 8, 1865, and was 
educated in the jiublic schools of that sec- 
tion, lie began his liusiness career as a 
clerk in a grtjcery store and arose to pro- 
jirietorshi]). A few years later he entered the 
real estate l)usiness and has developed many 
large tracts in Dorchester, Roxbury, West 
Roxbury and Newton, l)U\-ing up old estates 
of extensive acreage and converting them 
into choice and salable resitlential plots. He 
was married in iS(;o to Margaret A. Buck- 
lev, of London, England, the union l)ringing 
six sons, of whom five are living. His 
third son, Charles J. Brennan, is associated 
with him in business with offices at 31 
State Street. Mr. Lrennan is a member of 
the Ro}al Arcanum. 

FRANK H. PURINGTON 

Frank H. I'urington, president and treas- 
urer of Henry W. Savage, Inc., was born 
in Bo.ston, September 5, 1873, and was edu- 
cated in the public 
schools and Llar- 
V a r d Universit)-, 
from w h i c h he 
graduated in iSgc^ 
He entered the real 
estate office 1 > t 
Henry W. Savage 
in 1900 and was 
made manager of 
the business in 
1905. The Inisiness 
w a s incorporated 
January i, 19 14, 
and Mr. I'urington 
was elected presi- 
dent and treasurer, 
a position he still holds with offices at 129 
Tremont Street. He is a member of the 
Harvard Club, Boston City Club, Boston 
Chamber of Commerce and the Loyal Le- 
gion. His residence is in Brookline. 




FRANK H. PURINGTON 




JOHN C. SPOFFORD 



A WELL-KNOWN ARCHITECT WHO HAS DESIGNED MANY PUBLIC BUILDINGS, 

INCLUDING THE ADDITIONS TO THE STATE HOUSES 

OF MAINE AND MASSACHUSETTS 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



241 



JOHN CAL\TN SI'OFFORD 

John C". Spnft'ord, arcliitect, was Imni in 
Webster, Androscoggin County, Me., No- 
vember 25, 1S54, the son of Phineas AI. and 
Mary Ellen ( Wentworth ) Spofford. He 
was ethicated at llie ?^b)nnionth, ^Maine, 
Academy, \\'esleyan Seminary, Kents Hill, 
Maine, and the Maine State College. He 
enteretl the oftice of Hem-\- J. Preston, ar- 
chitect, in 1879, and was draftsman for 
Stiirgis & Bingham from 1881 to 1886. He 
was a member of the firm of Spofford & 
Bacon, 1887-8; Brigham & Spofford, 1888- 
92; Bailey & Spofford, 1898-1900; and 
Spofiford-Eastman, 1904-8, since which time 
he has practiced alone. Mr. Spofford has 
been architect for many pulilic buiklings, 
including fjrigham & Spoff(jrd's addition to 
the Maine and Massachusetts State Houses, 
City Halls of Augusta, Lewiston and Ever- 
ett, Elks Home, State Armories at Salem, 
Chelsea and Maiden, Keany S<|uare Build- 
ing, Hotel Wadsworth, Hotel Princeton, 
Masonic Temple, Augusta, Coos Countv 
(N. FL ) Court House and man\- churches 
and apartment houses. Mr. Spoft'ord was 
a member of the Massachusetts Legislature 
in 1905 and was a member of the Everett 
School Committee for four years. He is 
a member of the Massachusetts Real Estate 
Exchange, Everett City Planning Board, 
Allston Development Association, Odtl Fel- 
lows, and a member of the Masonic Frater- 
nity. His offices are at 15 Ijeacon Street. 

G. HENRI DESMOND 

G. Flenri Desmond, of the firm of Des- 
mond & Lord, architects, was l)orn in 
W'atertown, Mass., February 22, 1876, and 
\\as educated in the puljlic schools. He 
studied architecture in the office of a well- 
known firm, and after thoroughh' mastering 
every detail by association with leading- 
architects, began business for himself in 
1907. Some of the important work he has 
executed are the State Capitol at Augusta, 
Me.; the Fidelity Building, Portland, Me.; 
the Chapel at Poland Springs, Ale., for 
Hiram Ricker & Sons; the Steinert Build- 



ing, Providence, R. I.; Elks Building, IVovi- 
dence, K. I.; the Franklin Scjuare House, 
Boston; the Chelsea 'J'rust lUiilding, the 




HENRI DESMIIND 



engine houses and water department build- 
ings in Chelsea, after the destructive con- 
flagration in that cit\'. Fie has also planned 
various office buildings and is at the [iresent 
time engaged in work for the Boston Park 
Department, and is also liuilding the New 
High School at Portland, Me. Mr. Des- 
mond is a member of the ISiiston Art Clul), 
the Point Shirlc\' Llub, the Cumljerland 
Club of Portland and the Boston Real Es- 
tate Exchange. He was married August 
I, 1903, to \'asti Hollis, of New York. 
They have one son, George Henri Desmond, 
and reside at the corner of Braemore Road 
and Commonwealth Avenue, in a house of 
Mr. Desmond's own designing. His busi- 
ness address is 15 Beacon Street. 



Trinit\- Church, Copley Square, is one of 
the richest examples of ecclesiastical archi- 
tecture in the countrv. 



242 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




RALPH A. CRAM, LITT.D., LL.D. 
OF THE FIRM OF CRAM AND FERGUSON, ARCHITECTS 



EDWARD J. BREST 

Edward J. Brest, real estate dealer, was 
born in Uxbridge, Mass., December 29, 
1868, and was educated in the public schools 

there and at the 
W e s 1 e y a n Acad- 
eni}-, ^\'ilbraham, 
Mass. He began 
his liusiness career 
as a real estate 
tlealer and builder 
in Bristol, R. L, 
hut now operates in 
Boston, with offices 
at 2"] State Street. 
Mr. Brest is treas- 
urer of the Boston 
Shoe Company. He 
was at one time 
auditor of the town 
of Uxbridge, Mass., 
moderator of Bristol, R. L, and postmaster 
of that town for four years. He is a Re- 
publican in politics and makes his home in 
Topsfield, Mass. 





EDWARD J. PREST 



HAROLD FIELD KELLOGG 

Hardld Field Kellogg, who enjoys a high 
reputation as an architect and designer, was 
born in Boston, January 26, 1884. He 

graduated from 

Harvard in 1906 
and at the Ecole 
des Beaux Arts, 
Baris, in 1909. He 
has Ijeen employed 
b_\- the State as ar- 
chitect at the North 
Reading and Lake- 
ville Sanitaria, de- 
signed city hos- 
pitals at Bl}-inouth. 
Brookline, Gard- 
ner, Taunton, and 
built the Roxbury 
Boys' Club, the 

Duxburv Vacht harold field kellogg 

Club and many residences. He was Art 
Editor of the Flarvard Blustrated Maga- 
zine, has illustrated for Houghton Mifflin 
Co., and exhibited at the Faris Salon. He 
is a meml)er of the Boston Society of Ar- 
chitects, Harvard Club, Architectural Club 
and the Societe des Architects diplomes par 
le Gouvernement Fran^ais. His offices are 
at 141 Milk Street. 

JOHN THOMAS HOSFORD 
John Thomas Hosford, real estate oper- 
ator, was born in Limerick, Ireland, Decem- 
ber 23, 1868, and was brought to America 
b}' his parents in infancy. He was educated 
in the public schools and began his business 
career with Henry W. Savage. He was in 
charge of a department for Mr. Savage for 
three years, and in 1893 organized the firm 
of Hosford & Williams. Since 19 13 he has 
operated under his own name with offices at 
85 Devonshire Street. He is a director of the 
Massachusetts Fire & Marine Insurance Co., 
and as a member of the Committee of 100, 
and the Executive Committee of the Charter 
Association aided in the fight to secure the 
present city charter. He was Chairman of 
the Executive Committee of the Citizens 
Municipal League for one year, a member 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



2U 



(if tlie Executive Cuniniittee of the Good 
Government Association, ami ])rcsi(k'nt of 
the Roslindale Citizens' Association for two 
years. He is a member of tlie ]5oston 
Chamber of Commerce, the ^Masonic Frater- 
nity, the Boston City Club, Unitarian and 
Highland Clubs of West Roxbury. 



ALEXANDER SYLX'ANUS PORTER 

(deceased) 

Alexander S. Porter, the orij^inator of 
the trust form of (jwuership, who died 
on Octolier i, 1915, was born at Coal's 
Mouth, Mrginia. August 2~,. 1840. He was 
educated at the Pinkerton Academy at 
Derry, N. H., and the English High School 
('57). In i860 he entered his father's office 
and in 1869 started in the real estate Inisi- 
ness for himself. His most notable trans- 
action was the organization of the Boston 
Real Estate Trust and the financing of the 
Exchange Building, for which lie raised the 
sum of $3,000,000. He was at one time 
president of the Boston Real Estate Ex- 
change, president of the Society for Preven- 
tion of Title Forgeries, and president of the 
^Massachusetts Infant Asylum. 

He organized the Boston Storage \\'are- 
house Co. and other important enterprises. 
He negotiated many large sales, among 
them being the Scollay Building and the 
Deacon and Chandler estates. He was the 
author of "Changes of \'alue in Real Es- 
tate'' and other historical jiajjcrs, and was 
a mcmlier of the Bostonian Society, the 
Countr\- and Uni(_in Clubs. 



It is a fact that at the present time there 
is a greater activity throu.ghout Bcxston in all 
kinds of real estate than for a number of 
years past. Along Ijoth the North and South 
shores summer homes have ])ractically occu- 
pied the entire stretch of land and the de- 
mand for desirable lots has been most 
pronounced, for there is no state in the 
"Union that has a more attractive sea coast 
than Massachusetts. 




FRANKLIN H. HUll-HINS, ARCHITECT 
6 BEACON STREET 



ALBERT J. LOVETT 
Alljert J. Lovett, who acts as trustee and 
agent for several estates and is engaged in 
the real estate and insurance business, was 
born in Somerville, Mass., August 16, 1866. 
He graduated from the Chauncv Hall 
School in 1SS5 and entered the office of 
Howard Stockton, who was at that time 
treasurer of several corporations. Later he 
entered the office of his father, Joshua 
Lovett, at 265 AX'ashington .Street, who was 
associated with \\'illiam Sohier, a lawver, 
who devoteil his time to the management 
of his own and the family estates. 

L^pon the death of his father Mr. Lovett 
succeeded to the business, which he now 
conducts at 33 State Street. He comes of 
New England ancestry, antl the family is 
said to have descended from Richardus de 
Louet, who came into England with Wil- 
liam of Normand}- in 1066. The name was 
Anglicized, and John Lovett, a descendant 
of Richardus de Louet, who was born in 
England in 16 10, founded the American 
branch of the family, coming to Massachu- 
setts in 1639 and settling at Cape Ann Side. 



244 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



LOREN D. 

Loren D. Towle, who has, in a few years, 
risen from a position of comparative oh- 
scuritv as a smaH real estate broker to 




LOREN D. TOWLE 



that of leading realty operator in the city 
and state and possibly in New England, was 
born March 25, 1874, in Newport, N. H. 
He was educated at the public schools and 
graduated in 1892 at the high school in the 
place of his birth, also at Eastman Business 
College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., completing 
his studies there in 1893. He began his 
business career the same year as a clerk 
with a Boston house, and three years later 
entered the real estate field as Ijroker, con- 
ducting a small but lucrative business in that 
line until 1902. Having acquired a wide 
and comprehensive knowledge of real estate 
conditions and values, he determined to en- 
large his fields of endeavor and become an 
active operator. Since 1902, he has been 
one of the most active and aggressive deal- 
ers in realty in the State. His energies, 
while not confined entirely to this city, were 
bent on handling Boston down-town busi- 



TOWLE 

ness properties, and in the fourteen years 
that have intervened since he quit the bro- 
kerage business he has luiught and sold on 
his own account many of the most desirable 
properties in the Inisiness district and resi- 
dential holdings in the Back Bay district 
that range in value from $10,000 to 
$1,000,000. He has also erected many 
buildings that have materially added to 
Boston's reputation for commodious and 
sanitary structures ; besides several mer- 
cantile buildings, the nine-story Publicity 
Building, at 40-44 Bmmfield Street, and the 
twelve-story Newport Building at 60-68 
Devonshire Street. Several imposing struc- 
tures at Coolidge Corner also bear testimony 
to Mr. Towle's activity. 

j\Ir. Towle is a director of the Inter- 
national Trust Co., and of the Boston Real 
Estate Exchange and Auction Board. His 
forbears were among the earliest settlers 
of New England, the American l)ranch of 
the family Ijeing established by Philip 
Towle, who came from England in 1657 
and settled in Hampton, N. H. He is a 
Republican in politics, but beyond serving 
as a meml)er of the Board of Aldermen of 
Newton in 1910 and 191 1 has never sought 
political preferment. He is a member of 
the Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Mas- 
sachusetts Horticultural Societ}', the Bos- 
tonian Society, Commonwealth Country 
Club, the Hunnewell Club of Newton, the 
Newton Golf Club, Dalhousie Lodge, A. F. 
& A. M., Newton Royal Arch Chapter and 
the Gethsemane Commandery of Newton. 
He was president of the Newton Improve- 
ment Association in 191 1 and 1912. Mr. 
Towle was married June 2S; 1899, to I\Iiss 
Helen M. Leland of Sangerville, Maine. 
They have two daughters. His offices are 
at 68 Devonshire Street, Boston, and he 
resides at 215 Franklin Street, Newton. 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 



Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER XV 




MUSIC AND THE FINE ARTS 



Boston's Early Supremacy in Musical Taste and Culture — The Systematic Cul- 
tivation OF Pure Music from the Start of the City's Musical Develop- 
ment — Beginnings of Classical Orchestral Music — The Handel 
and Haydn Oratorio Society — Early Facilities for the 
Higher Musical Education — Founding of the 
Boston Symphony Orchestra and of the 
"Pops" — The City's Leadership 
in the Fine Arts Fifty 
Years Ago and Now 



1 T the beginninjj of the half 
]) centurv of wliich we are 
^i,l^^j treating, Boston was occu- 
s}^ I)\-ino- an assured position 
jK^'p^CJ^t'/ \vith respect to musical 



to that of 



taste and culture superior 
anv other American cit\'. 



During the Civil War the cause of pure 
music had waned in commi:)n with many 
other interests. Still within that period there 
was something to enjoy in the chamber con- 
certs by resident artists, ()f win mi the citv 
could boast not a few. At the close of the 
war the revival was prompt, and therefrom 
through the latter half centur\- the develop- 
ment of the higher musical interests con- 
tinued as l)ef(ore. and the city's leadership as 
a musical centre sustained. 

From the beginning the cit\''s cultivation 
of music was of the highest grade. It was the 
s_\-steniatic culture of music for music's own 
sake. It began with orchestral music, and 
the pioneer in the movement was a German. 
Pie was one Gottlieb Graupner, a German 
musician and piano-forte teacher, wlio had 
come to Boston in 1798 and made the town 
his ado|)ted home. In 1810 or 181 1 Graup- 
ner formed a "Philo-harmonic Society" 
composed of his musical friends. These 
comrades met informalh- on Saturdav eve- 



nings in a little music hall which Graupner 
had estaldished in his little house on Frank- 
lin Street, and practised Ha\-dii's s\'m- 
phonies and other classical music merelv for 
the gratification cif the performers. It was 
a small orchestra of players, and mostly of 
amateurs, for at the time of the organiza- 
tion of the "Philo-harmonic Societv" there 
were said ti) have been not half a score of 
])ri:)fessionals in the town. The Philo-har- 
monic afterward expanded somewhat and 
gave ciiiicerts in jniblic halls. It is known 
to have been in existence as late as Novem- 
ber, 1X24, when a concert by the society 
was announced, at the Pantheon (jii Boyl- 
stoii Square. 

In 181 5, on ]\Iarcli thirtieth, B(iston's fine 
oratorio society, the Handel and Haydn, 
was founded. Its material was largely 
drawn from the choir of the Park-Street 
Church, which was reiiciwned in the town 
for its musical excellence ; from the Philo- 
harmonic Orchestra, and from the few 
English organists and chuir <lirectors then 
established in Boston. At that time the 
Park-Street choir counted some fiftv 
singers. There was then no organ in the 
church; the accompaniment of the choir's 
singing was gi\en b\- tlutes, a bassoon, and 
a violoncello. The iminilse for the forma- 



246 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



tion of the society came in a Peace Jubilee, 
when, on February twenty-third, 1815, an 
oratorio was given in King's Chapel in cele- 
bration of the Peace in the War of 1812. 
The society has done important service by 
its publications — collections of anthems, 
masses, and choruses for church use. Its 
first collection was made by Lowell Mason, 
then and for long after one of the most 
prominent figures in Boston's musical 
activity. 

So early as the 'twenties musical journals 
began to appear, each of high order. The 
first, started in 1820, was the Eiitcrpciad, 
a fortnightly magazine owned and con- 
ducted by John Rowe Parker, a local 
musical authority. In its second year a sup- 
plement called the Mincniad was added, 
designed especially for "ladies' reading." In 
1838 the Boston Musical Gascttc was 
launched with Bartholomew Brown as edi- 
tor. The ne.xt year the Musical Magazine, 
the most meritorious of all, made its appear- 
ance, under the conduct of Theodore Hach, 
a German of culture, and a violoncellist in 
local concerts. He returned to Europe a 
few years later. These several journals, 
short as their careers were, did much to 
promote a taste in the public for good 
music. Then, in 1852, Divight's Journal 
of Music appeared, with the scholarly critic, 
John Sullivan Dwight, as editor, which Ije- 
came the foremost journal of its class in the 
country. It particularly favored the classi- 
cal in musical art, and steadfastly upheld 
the highest standard in music. It was the 
best type of musical journal that this coun- 
try has produced, as its career was the long- 
est — April, 1852, to September, 1881. 

Early in the 'thirties the first musical 
educational institution was established. 
This was the "Boston Academy of Music," 
organized on so liberal a scale, and provid- 
ing such a variety of practical features, as 
to attract wide attention outside of Boston. 
It was opened in January, 1833, and had 
a satisfactory career of some fifteen years. 
In its establishment three estimable leaders 
in the cause of good music in that day, 
Lowell Mason, George J. Webb, and Samuel 
A. Eliot, were chiefly instrumental. Simul- 



taneously with its opening to pupils these 
energetic leaders succeeded in introducing 
musical education into the public schools, 
which ever since has been maintained. The 
Academy was indeed an educational hot- 
house. It furnished gratuitous vocal in- 
struction to old and young by the best 
teachers then in the town; trained classes 
of teachers in music ; established a choir of 
one hundred members of both sexes, which 
gave oratorio concerts and furnished music 
on civic occasions ; held singing conven- 
tions ; provided lectures, with illustrations, 
which were given in various churches in 
town, and in other towns and cities ; pub- 
lished collections of music and treatises. 
By 1835 the Academy had so grown that a 
buikling for its occupancy was necessary. 
Thereupon a lease of the old Federal-Street 
Theatre for a term of years was obtained, 
and the fine playhouse, one of Bulfinch's 
rare designs, was remodelled for the Acad- 
emy's use, and rechristened "The Odeon." 
Gradually coming to devote itself to con- 
certs, in 1839 the Academy established a 
small orchestra; and in 1841, for the first 
time, it gave purely instrumental concerts of 
classical music. These concerts were con- 
tinuetl till 1847, when they were suspended 
for lack of patronage. A reaction against 
entertainments of so intellectual a standard 
hatl set in. The popular demand was met 
liy an organization known as the Philhar- 
monic Society, formed about 1844, which 
furnishetl lighter music to miscellaneous au- 
diences. As for the Academy, it created, 
as Mr. Dwight has written, a higher kind 
of interest in music, and it nudtiplied con- 
certs till Boston became a point of attention 
to travelling artists from abroad. In 1844 
came two of the most famous virtuosos of 
the violin — Ole Bull and A'ieuxtemps. 
Later came Carl Zerrahn, from Germany, 
after the affair of 1848, to become a per- 
manent resident of Boston, and to take a 
leading hand in musical affairs. For many 
years he was the conductor of the Handel 
and Haydn Society. In 1858 came Julius 
Eichberg, an artistic violinist, who had been 
a professor of violin, playing in the Conser- 
vatorie of Geneva, to become in Boston a 



Tin-: ROOK OF BOSTOX 



247 



foremost teacher ; tlie nn ist famous leader 
of the old Boston ^luseum orchestra ; the 
first composer in America of English 
operas : his "Doctor of Alcantara," first per- 
formed in the Boston Museum, in 1862, the 
most popular of his compositions of this 
class; for a long period superintendent of 
nnisic in the Boston Public Schools ; 
founder of the Boston Conservatory of 
Music. Then in the 'sixties came several 
artist teachers: Otto Dresel, August Kreiss- 



cultivating the pul)lic taste fur sucli music, 
till the (irganization t)f Mr. Iligginson's 
lioston Symphony Orchestra. The Har- 
vard Musical Association, also, was instru- 
mental in the establishment of various 
worthy institutions. It originated the 
movement \\ hich resulted in the erection of 
the Boston Music Hall, in 1852, a building 
in all respects adequate for high-class con- 
certs; and it was the "father" of Dzvight's 
Joitnial of Music. The association finally 




BOSTON OPERA HOUSE 



man, who became the leader for luany years 
of the Orpheus singing-clul) ; l'~rnst I'erabo, 
among the ablest interpreters of great piano 
music ; Carl Petersilea. 

While the work of the .\cadeiu\' was 
helpful, the chief nuisical educating intlu- 
ence was the chamber concert. The pioneer 
in this department was the Harvard Musical 
Association, beginning in 1837. This asso- 
ciaticin Ijecaiue and remained the chief rep- 
resentative of classical (irchestral luusic in 
Boston, and the most inlluential aticnl in 



came to devote itself mainly to the giving 
of subscription concerts with programmes, 
])urelv on the |)rinciple of cultivating the 
])ublic taste. Another early exponent of 
chaiuber music was the Mendelssohn Quin- 
tette Clul), which came prominentl\- into no- 
tice in the winter of 1840-1850. It achieved 
something of an international fame l)y its 
tours through the countr\- and abroad. 

The \ear 1863 was marked by the "iii- 
auguration" of the "Great Organ" in I\Iusic 
Hall, the largest organ then on this con- 



.248 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



tinent, and one of the three or four largest 
in the world. A music festival on Novem- 
ber second celebrated its accession. In 
front of the organ, at the rear of the stage, 
was effectively placed Crawford's majestic 
statue of Beethoven, a gift in trust for the 
Handel and Ha}'dn Society by Charles C. 
Perkins, and by the sculptor, Mr. Crawford 
making no charge for his design. It had 
embellished this stage since 1856, when 
its placing in the hall was marked by a 
great Beethoven Festival. The last regu- 
lar performances of this period were Carl 
Zerrahn's Philharmonic concerts. These 
continued up to 1863. 

From the foregoing retrospective sum- 
mary of the achievements in the cultivation 
of the higher music in Boston through the 
first half of the century, it is seen that at 
the beginning of the second half the city's 
fame as the chief American musical centre 
rested on solid foundations. 

Before the close of the 'sixties musical ed- 
ucational institutions were revived. In Feii- 
ruary, 1867, Mr. Eichberg's "Boston Con- 
servatory of Alusic" was under w^ay, and one 
week later Eben Tourjee's "New England 
Conservatory of Music." Mr. Eichberg's 
school furnished instruction in all the prac- 
tical and theoretical branches of music in 
classes, but was especially given to the teach- 
ing of the violin. The violin school was 
most successful. Mr. Dwight tells of the 
"wonders" that Mr. Eichberg and his corps 
of teachers accomplished. "Little girls and 
boys of six or eight, who look about over- 
weighted by the instrument, play music of 
considerable difficult}- with facile, finished 
execution and with good expression." ^Ir. 
Tourjee's Conservatory gathered in the 
greater nunilier of pupils; earlv it was 
counting some fifteen hundred coming from 
various parts of the country. It gave in- 
struction from the start'-iji every branch of 
the science and art of vocal and instru- 
mental luusic. Its growth was so rapid that 
early it had become the largest music school 
in the world. 

The years 1869 and 1872 were enlivened 
lay the stupendous enterprises of Patrick 
Sarsfield Gilmore, famous of bandmasters, 



in the two gigantic Peace Jubilees, the one 
in celel>ration of the return of national peace 
with the end of the Civil War, the second, 
an International Peace Jubilee. The scheme 
of the first Jubilee, when broached, which in- 
volved an orchestra of one thousand and a 
chorus of ten thousand, and the erection of 
a "Colosseum" to accommodate the per- 
formers and an audience of upward of fifty 
thousand, took the public's breath away. It 
was almost universally jironounced chimeri- 
cal, while musical critics roundly ridiculed 
it. But the ardent, magnetic, enthusiastic, 
emotional Gilmore succeeded in l)ringing to 
his support a group of influential Boston 
merchants, chief among them Eben D. Jor- 
dan, and put the affair through magnifi- 
centlv. At the ojiening, on June fifteen, 
i86cj, in the presence of a vast audience, in- 
cluding many invited guests of distinction, 
Mr. Gilmore lifted his baton over his great 
orchestra and great chorus, whose first note 
was accompanied by the boom of cannon on 
the Common, fired by electricity from the 
huge "Colosseum" on the "New Lands," in 
what was then called St. James Park, a little 
east of where the present Copley-Plaza hotel 
stands ; and the simultaneous ringing of all 
the bells of the city. The International 
Juljilee, following in 'seventy-two, was the 
most stupendous of Gilmore's conceptions, 
and was carried through as magnificently as 
the first one. For this a huger Colosseum 
was erected with a seating capacity of one 
hundred thousand ; the orchestra was aug- 
mented to two thousand, and the chorus to 
twenty thousand ; foreign talent was largely 
drawn upon ; and the great military bands 
of the European nations, England, France, 
German}-, were brought out, their services 
being given liv their governments through 
the solicitation of President Grant. This 
greatest of all popular musical festivals then 
on record was opened on June seventeenth, 
and continued through eighteen days. 
These monster Jubilees were musically im- 
portant principally on account of their wide 
stimulating effect, and the introduction to 
American audiences of some of the finest 
European l)ands and solo artists. Mr. Gil- 
more wrote a book, entertaining and, in pas- 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



249 



sages, amusing, giving his own account of 
the two affairs, in which he took tiie public 
into his confidence with great frankness. 
Genial, amiable, proud Gilmore! He was 
the favorite of newspaper men. I came to 
know him agreeably in the 'seventies. He 
was nettled by my free-hand review of his 
book, but only for a moment. It was a de- 
light to see him at the head of his band in a 
great street procession. He played the 
cornet like an artist. 

The latter years of the half century 



Subsequently it joined to itself a female 
choir and took uj) larger works. In 1877 
appeared the Cecilia, of mixed chorus, per- 
forming the larger works of the best com- 
posers, usually with the assistance of an 
orchestra. In 1879 — the Arlington Club, of 
male voices, cultivating the part-song and 
allied music, the field abandoned by the 
Boylston Club after its first few seasons. 
In 1879 — '^he Euterpe Society, formed on 
the same general principle as that of the 
singing clubs. In its first series of concerts 




SYMPHONY HALL HOME OF THE BOSTON SYMPHOiNY ORCHESTRA 



formed the era of musical clubs, supported 
entirely by the fees of members. The sing- 
ing clubs, engaged the services of the best 
conducting talent, because of inestimable 
benefit as training schools for the chorus 
singers, mostly amateurs. Their perform- 
ances, too, served to refine the public taste 
and develop a high standard of choral nuisic. 
In 1 87 1 was formed the Apollo Club, com- 
posed of male voices, which ultimately de- 
voted itself almost entirely to vocal music 
of the light class. In 1873 the Boylston 
Club, comprising a luale chorus to sing part- 
songs and similar music, was organized. 



only classical chamber nuisic by small com- 
binations of stringed instruments was pre- 
sented, and the best players of Boston and 
New York were engaged. 

A new awakening of interest in orchestral 
music came in the latter 'seventies and early 
'eighties. In 1879, with the organization of 
the Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Lis- 
termann attempted the establishment of 
yearly courses of concerts. The next year 
he organized the Philharmonic Society with 
professional memljers and subscription mem- 
bers, the latter bearing the expenses, to suc- 
ceed, or sustain, the Philharmonic Orches- 



250 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



tra. Then the next Aear, 1881, came the 
estal)lisliment of Major Henrv L. Higgin- 
son's Boston Symphony Orchestra. 

Now, in its thirty-fourth year, we have a 
book by that accomplished Hterateur, M. A. 
DeW. Howe, published, happily, on Mr. 
Higginson's eightieth birthday, November 
eighteen, 1914, the authorized and intimate 
story of the rise of his band of players, and 
its development into the most accomplished 
orchestra in the world, conceived in Mr. 
Higginson's young manhood when a student 
of nuisic abroad, founded, and sustained by 
him alone — the dream of his life brought to 
complete fulfilment. Mr. Howe's story is 
based on material furnished by Mr. Higgin- 
son, and is essentially Mr. Higginson's own 
account. It tells of the early work of up- 
building the orchestra l)y the first con- 
ductors, Georg Henschel in his three years' 
service, and W^ilhelm Gericke through his 
first term of service. It was Mr. Gericke 
who really made the orchestra, forming it 
from an engaging band of clever musicians, 
l)Ut undisciplined, into the perfected organ- 
ization working in harmony under the one 
leader. The story of the work of the band 
under the conductorship of Mr. Nikisch 
and Mr. Paur; Mr. Gericke's second term, 
1898-1906, and Dr. Muck, is all covered in 
interesting detail by Mr. Howe, with amus- 
ing revelations here and there of the free- 
dom of the critics and other "outsiders" 
with advice as to the way the institution 
should be run. It appears that Mr. Hig- 
ginson's method from the beginning was to 
make the conductor the master of the or- 
chestra's personnel, of its programmes, and 
all the details of the concerts, while the busi- 
ness management of the Ijand's affairs was 
entrusted to administrators whom he chose. 
Thus no small credit for the perfection of 
the orchestra artistically and its business-like 
conduct is due to Mr. Higginson's admi- 
rable musical sense and business acumen. 

The "Pops" — popular concerts by a part 
of the orchestra, of airy music, running 
through the early summer months, with a 
mild dash of bohemianism, the audience sit- 
ting about little tables at which light drinks 
and lighter edibles are served, — were insti- 



tuted in the latter 'eighties, to become a 
unique Boston institution. 

With the abandonment of the Boston 
Music Hall the Symphony Hall on the Back 
Bay was erected, and this became the per- 
matient home of the Boston Symphony Or- 
chestra, of the "Pops," and of the Handel 
and Haydn Society, where its oratorios are 
given. Later the Boston Opera House was 
erected farther out on the avenue which the 
Symphony Hall faces, an institution largely 
fostered by the late Eben D. Jordan, and 
permanent grand opera was established, 
with the presentation of operas by Boston's, 
own organization through the regular sea- 
sons. The opening of the great European 
War in 1914 had a crushing effect upon this 
enterprise, and the performances were aban- 
doned, temporarily, as first supposed. At 
length, however, in January, 19 16, Mr. Jor- 
dan sold the Opera House, and its trans- 
formation into a regular theatre was con- 
templated by its new purchasers. Mr. Eich- 
berg's Boston Conservatory, after an honor- 
able and useful career, came to an end in the 
'nineties, not long before Mr. Eichberg's 
death. Under the guidance of Ralph L. 
Flanders, general manager, and George W. 
Chadwick, musical director, the New Eng- 
land Conservatory continues the greatest in- 
stitution of its kind in the country, embrac- 
ing now sixteen separate schools. After the 
death of Dr. Tourjee, it was reorganized 
and its administration placed iipon a sub- 
stantial basis, under the control of a board 
of trustees, with Carl Faelten as director. 
Crawford's statue of Beethoven, which, 
after the passing of the Boston Music Hall, 
was shifted about, for a time resting in the 
entrance hall of the Boston Public Library, 
now embellishes the entrance hall of the 
present Conservatory l)uilding, on Hunting- 
ton Avenue, near Symphony Hall. The 
Great Organ, alas ! was permitted to be sold, 
and to ]mss to humble uses. 

The cultivation of the Fine Arts in 
America, notably of portrait painting, was 
earliest liegun in Iloston. There were 
"limners" established in the town in Colony 
days. A portrait of two children of Robert 
Gibbs, a rich merchant who lived on Fort 



THK I^OOK OP' BOSTOX 



251 



Hill, painted in Boston and hearing" date of 
1670, is extant. In 1679 or 1680 a portrait 
of Increase Mather was painted here. I'eter 
Pelham, who came from England about 
17J4-17.26, is the earliest Boston painter of 
whom we have most knowledge. He was 
more of a copper-plate engraver than a 
painter, and has been called the founder of 
copper-plate engraving here ; liut he is 
known to have painted ])ortraits of a few 
Boston worthies. He is most distinguished 
in local art histor_\', perhaps, as the step- 
father of John Sitigleton Co])ley. He was 
a versatile school teacher, and established, 
if not the first, one of the earliest schools in 
the town in which painting was taught. 
The school was begun in his dwelling "near 
the Town Dock." al)out or ])efore 1734. 
The "curriculum was ex]iansive, emliracing 
reading, writing, arithmetic, dancing, paint- 
ing, and needlework. P'elham married the 
widow Copley in Ma\', 1747. when John 
Singleton Copley was a lad of nine, and the 
united families made their home in Lindall 
Row (about where E.xchange Place now is ) , 
"against [opposite] the Quaker meeting- 
house." Contemporary with Pelham was 
John Smiljert. the first distinctly profes- 
sional painter in Boston. He came to Amer- 
ica, at Newport, Rhode Island, in ij2(). with 
others (among them Peter Harrison, after- 
ward the architect of King's Chapel ) in the 
train of Bishop, then Dean, Berkeley, who 
had that beautiful dream of founding a 
university in the New World for teaching 
_\duth the arts and sciences along with 
the training of Indians and missionaries. 
Smibert was to have served as professor of 
painting and architecture in the faculty of 
the institution. He was a Scotchman, and 
had developed into a jiainter of portraits 
from a painter of coaches, in London. His 
Boston painting included a large number of 
portraits of Boston ministers, judges, and 
other dignitaries. His immediate successor 
as chief portrait painter in Boston was Jona- 
than Blackburn, who set u]) his studio here 
a }ear before Smibert's death ( w liich oc- 
curred in 1 751) and remained in the town 
fifteen vears. It is said that about fiftv of 



his Boston-painted ])ortraits are e.xtaut in 
or about the city. 

John Singleton Copley (1737-1815) was 
tile first native-born Boston painter (unless 
John Greenwood, said to have been born in 
Boston ten years before him, is to be 
counted). He was of Irish parentage, and 
I)oth of his parents came from Countv Lim- 
erick. His mother was "S(iuire Singleton s" 
daughter. .\t about the time of his birtli in 
Boston, Jul}' third, \y^^j. his father, Richa'"d 
Copley, died in the West indies. He \\as a 
born artist and was making creditable 
sketches when a little fellow. He was not 
seif-taught, as iias been stated in some of 
the biograpliies, but was trained by his step- 
father, Pelham. He Ijegan making por- 
traits after Pelham's death in 1751, and 
when he himself was a lad of fourteen. In 
1755, Washington, when visiting Boston, 
sat to him for a miniature. The next year 
he achieved local fame with a portrait of 
General Brattle in the uniform of a British 
officer. Thereafter he devoted himself ar- 
dently to the study of his art, painting dili- 
genth'; and it was not l<ing before he had 
become the fashionable jjainter, making por- 
traits of the "cjuality." His ]iortraits were 
spoken of as having an air of liigii l)reed- 
ing. The\' were esjiecialh' marked by the 
richness of their coloring and excessive 
care in the details of costtune. He made of 
all his sulijects fine ladies and fine gentle- 
men. In 1769 he married ^liss Susan 
Clarke, daughter of Richard Clarke, a rich 
and distinguished Boston merchant. He 
was then moving in the best society of the 
town, and was the "court painter," painting 
the portraits of the aristocracy. In 1771 he 
wrote that he was making a comfortable liv- 
ing from his art. At that time he was the 
owner of the greater i)art <if the \\'est side 
of Beacon Hill, then a place of pastures, his 
domain embracing all the land which lies be- 
tween the i)resent Charles, Beacon, \\"alnut 
and Alt. \'ernon Streets, Louisburg Scjuare. 
and Pinckney Street. This he called "The 
Farm." His dwelling, anfl painting room. 
faced Beacon Street al)out where is now- the 
Somerset Clubhouse. In 1773 he was con- 
cerned in the "Tea Part\" affair, endeavor- 



252 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ing unsuccessfully to act the patriotic part 
of a mediator, at the final great meeting in 
the Old South Meetinghouse : his father-in- 
law, Richard Clarke, and the latter's son, 
being of the consignees of the tea ships. In 
1774 he went to England, intending to stay 
abroad but temporarily. He, however, was 
never to return. His family joined him just 
before the outbreak of the Revolution. In 
England he spent the remainder of his life, 
in a career of uninterrupted success. His 
estate on Beacon Hill was purchased, as has 
been stated in a previous chapter, by the syn- 
dicate which became the Mt. Vernon Pro- 
prietors and built up Beacon Hill. It is 
said that of his work in Boston, Copley left 
more than two hundred and fifty oil paint- 
ings, besides crayons and miniatures, all 
done in twenty years; and that "almost 
every great name of the day is found in the 
list of his sitters." After Copley, most dis- 
tinguished was Gilbert Stuart. Born in 
Rhode Island in 1755, he began, like Cople>', 
to paint in his young boyhood, and at thir- 
teen he had so taught himself that he re- 
ceived orders for portraits. At seventeen 
he was in England, struggling for an edu- 
cation and the cultivation of his art. After 
two years he returned to America, and for 
a year painted here with slight success. 
Then he went again to England, sailing in 
the last ship that left Boston before the 
blockade in 1775. In London he became a 
pupil of West's, attended Reynold's lectures, 
and studied anatomy. By 1785 he had left 
his master and set up a studio of his own. 
His success was remarkable. In 1792 he 
suddenly left his London work, and again 
returned to America. First he settled in 
New York and painted there with satisfac- 
tory results. Then he moved to Philadel- 
phia, thence to Washington, and finally es- 
tablished himself permanently in Boston. 
This was his home for more than twenty 
years, till his death in July, 1828. He be- 
came Boston's best portrait painter. His 
home and painting room through his latter 
years were on Essex Street, near Edinboro 
Street. His grave is in the old burning- 
ground on Boston Common, unmarked, but 
its location is indicated by a tablet, in the 



form of a palette, attached to the fence 
alongside the broad path leading toward 
Park Square. Stuart's portraits of Wash- 
ington — the typical likeness by which the 
artist is most popularly known, — are 
numerous. The head is in the Boston 
Athenjeum. 

Portrait painting remained the only 
branch of art cultivated by Boston artists 
till about the 'twenties. Then landscape 
work was ventured, then painting of his- 
torical subjects. Earliest among the 
painters of the latter branch was Washing- 
ton Allston. Though a native of South 
Carolina (born in 1779), he was educated 
at the North, — at Newport, Rhode Island, 
and at Harvard College; and he was most 
particularly identified with the development 
of Boston art. He first came to Boston in 
1809, after a few years in Paris and Rome 
studying anatomy and modelling in clay; 
and opening a studio on the same spot where 
Smibert had painted eighty years before — 
on Court Street between Brattle Street and 
Cornhill — painted portraits like his con- 
temporaries, for a year or so. Then he re- 
turned to Europe, and spent several years 
in England painting historical subjects, re- 
ceiving prizes from the British Institution 
for several of his pictures of this class; and 
beginning his greatest work, unfinished at 
his death — "Belshazzar's Feast." In 1818 
he returned to Boston, and here and in 
Cambridge was his home through the rest 
of his life. He first established his studio 
at this time in a barn on an old estate near 
the corner of Pearl and High Streets, and 
resumed his historical painting. In 1831 he 
removed to Cambridgeport, and set up his 
home and painting room in a house on the 
corner of Magazine and Auburn Streets, 
which is still pointed out to the visitor as a 
treasured landmark from its connection 
with Allston. Here he died suddenly on 
the evening of the ninth of July, 1843, 
"sinking down in his chair and falling 
asleep," after a hard day's work on the un- 
ending task of his "Belshazzar." This un- 
finished canvas is now in the Museum of 
Fine Arts. 

The first attempt at an art gallery was 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



253 



made in 1823. when the Boston Athenjeum 
opened to artists its collection of works of 
art, then chiefly comprising a valuable lot of 
casts of the most celebrated statues of an- 
tiquity, given to the institution by Augustus 
Thorndike. In 1827 the first regular ex- 
hibition of painting and sculpture was 
opened to the public, and thereafter these 
exhibitions were held every year till the es- 
tablishment of the Museum of Fine Arts 



in the community a love and knowledge of 
art. Sometimes these exhibitions were 
given by local organizations of artists and 
art patrons. As early as 1826 the room 
containing the casts was open to artists de- 
siring to draw from them. When the Mu- 
seum of Fine Arts was established most of 
the Athenaeum collection was transferred 
to its galleries. 

Organizations of artists and of art pa- 




A READING ROOM IN THE ATHEN/EUM, LOCATED IN THE RECENTLY ADDED 
UPPER STORIES OF THIS FAMOUS BOSTON INSTITUTION 



in the 'seventies. During this period the 
Athen;cum art galleries ranked with the best 
in the country. Many valuable works of art 
became its permanent property, either by 
gift or purchase, and these, together with 
new works by local artists and pictures 
from private collections in the city and else- 
where often deposited here, made most at- 
tractive exhil)itions. It has been said, and 
trul}-, that the annual exhibitions held in 
these galleries through more than forty 
years did more than anything else to foster 



trons for the advancement of art among 
the people began in the 'forties. In 1842 
the Boston Artists' Association was formed, 
with Washington Allston as its first presi- 
dent, and for three years this organization 
gave exhibitions in "Harding's Gallery," 
then at No. 22 School Street. In 1852 the 
New England Art Union, organized under 
the leadership of Edward Everett, Franklin 
De.xter, and others of similar standing, for 
"the encouragement of artists and the prcj- 
motion of art," began giving free exhibi- 



254 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



tions of contemporary art in its own gallery, 
on Tremont Row. This flourished, how- 
ever, only for a little while. In 1854 the 
Boston Art Club was formed, with a mem- 
bership of twenty persons, nearly all of them 
professional artists, and studio exhibitions 
of the work of members were given at 
irregular intervals. 

Meanwhile, in 1850, the first free school 
of drawing in Boston was established by the 
beneficent Lowell Institute. It was open to 
l)oth sexes, and continued uninterruptedly 
for twenty-eight years, with excellent re- 



square being entered from Washington 
Street through an arched passageway. 
This chapel was originally a lecture room 
formed from an L of the hotel. In 1846 it 
was remodelled for the use of the Lowell 
Institute, and thereafter the Institute lec- 
tures were given in its hall till 1879, when 
its career closed. With the loss of its rooms 
here the life school came to an end. It was 
superseded by the School of Drawing and 
Painting in connection with the Museum of 
Fine Arts, established in 1876. 

Fifty years ago there was a colony of 




Drawing by H . Louts Gleason 



HARVARD GATE — HARVARD COLLEGE 



suits. It was the first art school in the coun- 
trv to adopt exclusivel}' at the beginning 
and continue throughout the course the 
principle of drawing from real objects only 
— from the "round," and not from copies 
or flat surfaces. For a quarter of a century 
^^'illiam Hollingsworth was the competent 
and beloved head of this famous life school. 
It was established in the old "Marlboro 
Chapel." which stood in the cobble-paved 
scjuare in the rear of the Marlborough 
Hotel, long on Washington Street, nearly 
opposite the head of Franklin Street, the 



Boston artists, numbering a hundred and 
more, most of them advancing toward fame. 
Not a few of them had done service in the 
war. With the return of peace the revival 
in the fine arts was quick, like that in music. 
The art quarters, or the studios, at this time 
were principally in the old Mercantile 
Library Building <>n Summer Street, and 
the new Studio Building on Tremont Street. 
Some of the older artists were accustomed 
to eke out their irregular incomes by teach- 
ing art to amateurs, at alluringly low rates. 
I remember seeing a transparency illumi- 



THE ROOK OP^ BOSTON 



^,1,-) 



iiated 1)V an huniMe candle, protruding from 
tlie front of a Tremont-Street building an- 
nouncing "Art Taught, at Fifty Cents a 
Lesson." Of the notable artists coming 
forward in the 'sixties, and later in the 
'seventies and "eighties, I recall with pleas- 
ant memories (T do not undertake to name 
them chronologically) : \\'illiam Morris 
Hunt, who came to Boston in 1863; Walter 
M. Brackett, dean of the Boston artists, 
painter of fine game-fish, now (1916) in 
his ninet\-fifth year still painting, an orig- 
inal member of the Ijostcm Art Club, si>me- 



ers ; W. F. Halsall, George S. W'asson, 
W. F. Lansl, W. E. Norton. Painters of 
figures and genre: I. M. Gaugengigl, 
Clement R. Grant, George R. Basse, Jr. 
Portrait painters: Frederick P. Vinton, J. 
Harvey Young, George Munzig, Edgar 
Parker, Otto Gundmann, Mrs. Sarah \V. 
Whitman, Robert W. Vennoh. Sculptors : 
Thomas Ball, in the 'sixties modelling his 
great equestrian statue of Washington, in 
the Public Garden; Martin Milmore, in the 
latter 'sixties at work on his Arm\- and 
Navv Moinimcnt on Boston Common, com- 




MlStUM OF n.NL ARTS, HUNTINGTON A\ENUh. 



time its president, of late years the receiver 
of a comi)limentary dinner l)y the club on 
his recurring birthdays ; John J. Enneking, 
famous of landscape painters, who estab- 
lished himself in Boston in 1864 or 1865, 
and whose completion of fifty years of 
"talented and conscientious work as a Bos- 
ton painter," in 1915, was celel)rated in 
March by the unusual ceremonv of a com- 
])limentary breakfast tendered him bv the 
artists of the city. Among other landscape 
painters: Thomas Allen, F. Childe Hassam, 
John B. Johnston, D. Jerome lihvell, J. 
Appleton Brown, H. \\inthrop Peirce, A. 
PI. Bickwell, J. Foxcroft Cole, George 
Iniller. Landscape painters who also ex- 
celled as painters of animals : F. W. Rogers, 
.Alexander Pope, Scott Leigh ton, Thomas 
Robinson, Albert Thomjison. Marine paint- 



pleted and dedicated in 1877; Truman H. 
Bartlett. later, Bartlett's son, Paul; Daniel 
C. French ; Miss Anne Whitney, the sculp- 
tor of the Samuel Adams statue in Adams 
Square, set up in the 'eighties, of Harriet 
Martineau, and of " Leif, the Norseman," 
the latter at the junction of Commonwealth 
and Massachusetts Avenues. Water col- 
orists : Ross Turner, T. F. Wainwright, 
C. W. Sanderson, T. O. Langerfelt, Charles 
Copeland, Edmund Garrett, Henry Sand- 
ham, Philip Little, Miss Elizabeth Boot, 
Miss Ellen Robljins, S. P. R. Triscott. The 
sculptors: Bela L. Pratt, Frederick Mac- 
Monnies, Cyrus E. Dallin, and the Kitsons 
• — Henry H. and his wife Alice Ruggles 
Kitson, — Charles 11. Woodbur}-, the distin- 
guished marine painter. Miss Grace Geer, 
miniatures, jxirtraits, and landscapes, are 



256 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



of the 'nineties and the opening twentieth 
century. 

The founding of the Boston Museum of 
Fine Arts in 1870 was a long and most im- 
portant step toward the popular promotion 
of art. The original building was placed on 
what became Copley Square, the site now 
covered by the Copley-Plaza Hotel. It was 
designed to comprise four sections sur- 
rounding a square interior court. It was 



double its original size, while extensive im- 
provements were made in various parts, at 
a large expense met by subscriptions of gen- 
erous citizens. John H. Sturgis was the 
architect of the original building, and Stur- 
gis and Cabot of the enlargement and im- 
provements of 1890. The institution from 
its creation has been wholly dependent for 
maintenance upon private liberalit}', the 
only gift from City or State being the land 




Dra'xing by II . Louis GUason 
BEACON STREET IX FRONT OF THE STATE HOUSE, THE SHAW MEMORIAL ON THE LEFT. THE OLD 
MANSIONS ARE BEING PARTIALLY REMOVED TO MAKE ROOM FOR A NEW STATE HOUSE WING. 
CINN & CO., PUBLISHERS, OCCUPY BUILDINGS ON THE RIGHT 



composed of brick, the front facing Copley 
Square decorated with elaljorate terra cotta 
pieces representing two allegorical composi- 
tions — "The Genius of Art" and "Art and 
Industry," presented by figures in relief — 
and the heads of Copley, Allston, Crawford, 
and other artists identified with Boston. 
The first section was completed and the Mu- 
seum opened to the public on the third of 
July, 1876. Three years later the fa(jade on 
Copley Square was finished; and early in 
1890 the building was increased to nearly 



which the original building occupied. It is 
managed by a board of thirty trustees, upon 
which are represented the Boston Athe- 
naeum, the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, and Harvard University. Also, 
members ex officiis are the mayor of 
the city, the superintendent of the public 
schools, a trustee of the Lowell Institute, 
the president of the trustees of the Boston 
Public Library, and the secretary of the 
State Board of Education. The Museum is 
open every day in the year, except the 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



257 



Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, and 
Christmas. Admission is free on every Sat- 
urday and Sunday and on pubHc hoHdays. 
On other days the entrance fee is twenty- 
five cents. The original building was super- 
seded by the present stone structure of 
classical style marked by extreme simplicity 
and dignit}-, on Huntington Avenue, farther 
out in the Back Bay quarter, erected in 1909. 
The noble extensii)n at the rear, facing the 
Fenway and the park of the Fens, the gen- 
erous gift of Mrs. Evans, was added in 
19 1 3. Guy Lowell was the architect of this 



Improvement League, gives especial char- 
acter to the entrance court. 

With the founding of the Art Museum 
in 1870 the liciston Art Club reorganized 
and enlargetl, and its gallery then estab- 
lished became a ])lace of popular exhibitions. 
The St. Botolph Club, organized in 1880,. 
established an art gallery at the outset, and 
its exhibitions have since been given at in- 
tervals through the winter and spring sea- 
sons. To the galleries of these clubs 
admission is by ticket obtained through 
members. Of small permanent free collec- 




lAKKAl.LT STATl'E I.N MAKINIL PARK 



second Museum, its general .scheme em- 
bodying the result of three A'ears' study of 
the museums of Europe and of modern 
muscology by an advisory committee com- 
posed of a number of artists and architects 
in connection with the director and the Mu- 
seum staff. It stands today one of the rich- 
est museums of its class in the country. In 
one department, that of Chinese and Japa- 
nese art, its collection is the largest and finest 
in the world. Cyrus E. Dallin's fine sym- 
bolic statue, "The Appeal to the Creat 
Sjjirit," secured as a public monument 
through the efforts of the Metropolitan 



tions, those in Faneuil Hall and in the Old 
State House, composed of historical por- 
traits and paintings, are interesting. 

Finally, with the wholesome progress of 
art, our favored city is protected from the 
affliction of mediocre displays of out-door 
art in statue or building through the opera- 
tion of the Art Department of the City of 
l)0st(in. This body, a board of commis- 
sioners, established by Legislative act in 
1898, is empowered to pass upon, approve 
or reject, any work of art offered to or pro- 
posed by the city. No work of art can be- 
come the property of the city without the 



258 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



approval of this department. All contracts 
■or orders for the execution of any painting, 
monument, statue, bust, bas-relief or other 
sculpture for the City must be made by this 
board acting by a majority of its members, 
subject to the approval of the mayor. The 
board may also be requested by the mayor 
or by the city council to pass upon the de- 
sign of any municipal building, bridge, ap- 
proach, lamp, ornamental gate or fence, or 
other structure to be erected on land belong- 
ing to the City. The commissioners number 
five. They are appointed by the mayor, 
without confirmation, selected from lists, 
each of three persons, submitted liy the trus- 
tees of the Museum of Fine Arts, the 
trustees of the Boston Public Library, the 
trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, the Boston Art Club, and the 
Boston Society of Architects. The mem- 
bers serve without pay. This commission 
was preceded by a smaller one, with less 
power, established in 1890. 

Before the creation of the art department 
the majority vote of the City Council fixed 
the standard of out-door art in the City's 
l)ublic places. This accounts for some abom- 
inations with which the City is afflicted. 

Ignaz M. Gaugengigl, the well-known 
artist, was born at Passau, Bavaria, January 
16, 1855, and was educated in Munich, 
Avhere he graduated from the Gymnasium, 
and afterward became a student at the 
Academy of Fine Arts, under Professor 
Raab and Prof. William Diez. He later 
studied the old masters and when only a 
student received a commission frnin the 
King of Bavaria, painting for him "The 
Hanging Gardens of Semiramis." He 
came to the United States in 1880, and 
since residing in Boston, has executed some 
notable work. His best-known paintings 
are: "An Affair of Honor," "The Duef," 
"The Refugee," "Adagio," "After the 
Storm," "The Revenge," "The First Hear- 
ing," "Incredulity," "The Amateur," and 
"Surprise." In recent years Mr. Gaugen- 
gigl has devoted his time to portrait 
work, and has made life-size paintings of 
the following well-known gentlemen : T. 




IGNAZ M. GAUGENGIGL 



Jeff'erson Coolidge, Sr., T. Jefferson 
Coolidge, Jr., Dr. Henry P. Bowditch, Dr. 
Cheever, A. Lawrence Rotch, William A. 
Gaston, ex-Secretary of State Robert Bacon, 
one of Dr. Reginald Fitz for the Harvard 
Medical School, and Ezra Ripley Thayer, 
dean of Harvard Law School, etc. Mr. 
Gaugengigl has handsomely appointed stu- 
dios and galleries at 5 Otis Place. He is a 
member of the St. Botolph, Tavern and 
Paint and Clay Clubs, and the School Com- 
mittee of the Museum of Fine Arts, the 
Guild of Boston Artists, Marine Museum, 
Bostonian Society, and the National Acad- 
emy of Design of New York. 



Boston has afforded the field for some 
famous architects — nultinch, Richardson, 
and others of scarcely less aliility and repu- 
tation, and it has numerous examples to 
show' off the work of some of the best men 
in the profession this country has produced. 
Trinity Church and the Public Library are 
buildings unsurpassed of their class in 
America. These and many other fine 
structures have set the Hub's architectural 
standard high. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



259 



ALEXANDER STEINERT 



Alexander Steinert, who has probably 
(lone more than any other single individual 
in Boston to advance the musical art here 




ALEXANDER STEINERT 



and cater t<j the desire of the music lovers of 
the city, was l)orn in Athens, Ga., Alarch 14, 
1 86 1, the son of M. and Caroline Steinert. 
He was educated in the public schools of 
New Haven, Conn., and at an early age en- 
tered the employment of his father, w ho was 
a ])iano manufacturer in that city. After 
learning the trade he was sent to Provi- 
dence, as the Rhode Island manager of the 
house of M. Steinert & Sons Co.. which had 
previously I)een incorporated. He later es- 
tablished the lioston branch of the companv 
in conjunction with the New England 
agency for the Steinway pianos, adding 
shortly afterwards all the .Eolian Com- 
pany's jiroducts. In 1900 he incorporated 
the Jewett Piano Co. He established a 
chain of stores in the principal New Eng- 
land cities, and in 1S96 erected the Steinert 



Hall Ihiilding on I'.cjylston Street. This is 
one of the finest buildings in Boston devoted 
to music and musical entertainments, and 
the Steinert Building in Providence, R. I., 
erected in 1Q12, is as beautiful architectur- 
ally and as ])opular with the music lovers 
of the State's capitol, as that in Boston. 
Mr. Steinert has for manv }ears been active 
and prominent in nuisical affairs, and it is 
due to his efforts that Boston has been the 
scene of some of the most noted nuisical 
productions. He was largely responsible for 
the success of the iierformance of the opera, 
"Siegfried," given in the Harvard Stadium, 
June 4, I<)I5. which attracted the largest 
audience that ever attended an operatic per- 
formance from this city. He was one of the 
founders of the Boston Singers, and it was 
he who arranged for the first appearance in 
Boston of Paderewski and many other 
famous artists. IMr. Steinert is general 
manager and treasurer of the M. Steinert & 
Sons Co., and is a director of the Jewett 
Piano Co., the Hume Piano Co., and the 
Boston ^lusic Trades Association. He is a 
member of the Art Commission of the City 
of Boston, a trustee of the New England 
Conservatory of Alusic, a memljer of the 
Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Boston 
Real Estate Exchange, the .\rt Club, Bos- 
tiMi Athletic Association, Longwood Tennis 
Club, Harvard Musical Club, Eidelia Musi- 
cal Society, founder of the P>rcrman Society 
and trustee of the South V.nd Music School 
Settlement and the Boston Music Sclniol 
.Settlements. ]\Ir. Steinert was married, 
June 6, 1889, to Bessie Shuman, the union 
Ijringing three sons, Russell, Robert and 
Alexander .Steinert. lie resides at 401 
Comnion\\e;dth Aveiuie, Boston, and has a 
beautiful summer home at Hospital Point, 
Beverh', Alass. 



260 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC 



NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC 



The New England Conservatory of 
Music, incorporated in 1870, is the largest 
and best equipped school of its kind in 
America. It has always offered the best of 
facilities in all branches of musical educa- 
tion, and since removing to its new building 




GEORGE W. CHADWICK, DIRECTOR 

NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY 

OF MUSIC 



on Huntington Avenue it offers advantages 
perhaps unrivalled elsewhere. The school 
has no endowment, aside from provision 
for a few scholarships. Its charter prohibits 
it from being conducted for profit and the 
present surplus is being applied to reduce 
the indebtedness. The annual attendance 
approximates three thousand, coming from 
all parts of the country. George W. Chad- 
wick, the director, is a composer and or- 
chestral conductor of international reputa- 
tion. The late Eben D. Jordan, until his 
recent death, was president of the Board 
of Trustees, which is composed of many 
prominent men of Boston and elsewhere. 
Ralph L. Flanders is general manager. 

The Conservatory is admirably located in 
the art and educational section and is one of 
the greatest institutions of its kind in the 
country. In its entrance hall stands the 
statue of Beethoven by Crawford, originally 
in the old Music Hall. 




MASONIC TEMPLE 

This handsome light granite building of the present modern type of architecture stands on one 

of the most expensive sites in the city of Boston — the corner of Tremont and Boylston 

Streets, facing the Common. It was built in 1898-9, and is the second Masonic 

edifice erected on this corner. It is the headquarters of the Grand 

Lodge of Massachusetts, and houses thirteen Blue Lodges 

in addition to a number of higher Masonic bodies. 

The ground floor is entirely devoted to 

business purposes. 



262 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



MORGAN L. COOLEY 




MORGAN L. COOLEY 

PRESIDENT OF COOLEY & MARVIN COMPANY, 

PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS AND ENGINEERS, TREASURER OF THE 

BOSTON CITY CLUB, ETC. 



Of representative citizens who are factors 
in the commercial and industrial life of Bos- 
ton, it is pleasing to recognize Mr. Morgan 
L. Cooley, president of Cooley & Marvin 
Co., public accountants and engineers, with 
offices in the Tremont Building. 



Mr. Cooley is a certified Public Account- 
ant, both of Massachusetts and New York, 
and is a member of the Massachusetts Bar. 
He is treasurer of the Boston City Club, a 
director of the School of Commerce and 
Finance, and a member and auditor of the 



'I'HK HOOK OF l^OSTOX 



263 



Boston Chanil)cr (if I'dinnifrcc. lie is also 
associated with tlic management of the lex- 
tile I'rinhiets ('(inipany and the iMilelity 
Management Corporation. 

His compan\' is cnntinuouslx' retained by 
incUviihials, partnerships and cor])orati ns, 
not <inl\- in matters of auditing, accnunting 
and tile constructii)n of accounting methods 
and office organization, Imt to an even 
greater extent in lines of producti(jn or in- 
dustrial engineering. The magnitude of the 
work of Coole\- & AFarvin Co., in factory or- 
ganization, arrangement, efficienc\' of ])lant 
and equipment, cost finding and cost reduc- 
tion, designing and installation of new ap- 
pliances and machinery for special purposes, 
in brief, perfecting cjrganization and methods 
to produce the greatest out])Ut at the lowest 
cost, would be a surprise to those who are 
not familiar with the subject and who real- 
ize that the industrial field thus covered was 
opened but a few years ago. The breadth 
of these activities and their successful oper- 
ation is made possible by the fact that the 
organization of which Mr. Coolev is the 
head is compcsed of a number of certified 
])ublic accountants and qualified engineers 
of various types of experience. The com- 
bined knowledge of the organization, sup- 
plementing and directing that of an expert 
always retained when special requirements 
arise in jiarticular matters, insures compe- 
tent consideration and a s<iund solution of 
every problem. Air. Cooley's clientele is 
representative not only of New England, but 
of many other states. In fact the company 
has de\eloped a business of national scope 
and is also favoral)]\- known in the leading 
cities of Canada. Included in these activi- 
ties are im])rovement work for hospitals, in- 
stitutions, municipalities, and practicall\- 
every form of supervision where modern 
business methods and efticient organization 
are demanded. 




1^. 

THEODORE W. DAHLQUIST 

Theodore W. DahU|uist, who conducts 
business under the name of the Dahlquist 
Manufacturing Co., 36 West 3rd Street, 
South Boston, was born in Sweden and 
came to this country in 1879. He learned 
the trade of co])])ersniith with his father lie- 
fore leaving his native land, and after work- 
ing as a journe\'man in Boston, he began 
luisiness for himself at the present location. 
Since its estalilishment the business has 
grown largely and n(jw occupies four build- 
ings, thoroughly ecpiipiied with the latest 
machinery and giving employment to 50 
hands. The plant has its own gas and elec- 
tric light plants. A specialty is made of 
plumbers' and confectioners' .supplies and 
range boilers. The work of the Dahlcpiist 
Manufacturing Company includes metal 
spinning, all copper work jiertaining to dis- 
tillation plants, steam jacket kettles, ex- 
tractors, tanks, steam coils, steamjiipes and 
•Steamboat work. The company al.so makes 
copper boilers in all styles and sizes, having 
four grades of tank pressure boilers. Di- 
rect pressure lioilers are built to stand any 
recpiired lest up to four hundred pounds. 



264 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



COL. ALBERT AUGUSTUS POPE 



(deceased) 



The vast improvement in the highways 
•and streets of the states and cities of the 
United States is an enduring monument to 
the untiring efforts of the late Col. Albert 
A. Pope, who was the pioneer of the "Good 
Roads" movement. During his active busi- 
ness career Colonel Pope was interested in 
many civic betterment movements but none 
resulted in such vast betterment to the coun- 
try at large as his battle for highway 
improvement. 

Colonel Pope was born in Boston, May 
20, 1843, and was educated in the public 
schools of Brookline. His predilection for 
■an active business career was shown at the 
age of twelve years, when he became a 
small dealer in fruits and vegetables, after- 
wards securing employment in the Ouincy 
Market. He later became a clerk in the 
leather store of Brooks & McCuen on Black- 
stone Street and was thus employed when 
the Civil War broke out. He immediately 
joined two active local militia organiza- 
tions, and, after some months of drill, en- 
listed in the volunteer forces of the Union 
Army. He was nineteen years of age at 
this time, yet, despite his youth, went to the 
front as second lieutenant in one of the 
■companies of the 35th Massachusetts Regi- 
ment. He was promoted to a first lieu- 
tenancy March 23, 1863, and rose to the 
captaincy April i, 1864. As an officer, his 
course was marked by the most intrepid 
acts and he was brevetted major for "gal- 
lant conduct at the battle of Fredericks- 
burg, Va." By a second brevet he was 
appointed lieutenant colonel for "gallant 
conduct in the battles of Knoxville, Poplar 
Springs Church and in front of Peters- 
burg." Colonel Pope's entire military ca- 
reer was marked by intense activity, and he 
served in the principal Virginia campaigns. 
He was with Burnside in Tennessee, Grant 
at Vicksburg and Sherman at Jackson, Miss. 
He commanded at Fort Hill, before Peters- 
burg, and in the last battle led his regiment 
into the city. At the conclusion of the war, 



Colonel Pope returned to Boston and began 
business as a dealer in shoe manufacturers' 
supplies. In 1877, having already organized 
the Pope Manufacturing Co., he became the 
pioneer in American bicycle manufacturing, 
and to overcome popular objection to the 
new industry, Colonel Pope was the first 
to obtain responsible legal opinion upon the 
rights of wheelmen in the public roads and 
parks, and to secure these rights. To popu- 
larize bicycling he founded the "Wheel- 
man," a magazine since absorbed by 
"Outing," and his indefatigable efforts to 
protect the interest of lovers of the sport, 
coupled with his vast industrial interests and 
business acumen, made him known through- 
out the entire civilized world. 

At this period Colonel Pope, who had 
made an exhaustive study of the world's 
highways and found those of the United 
States the worst, determined to inaugurate 
a movement for improvement. He devoted 
valuable time and large sums to this work 
and lived to see many of his suggestions 
adopted. In an address on "Highway Im- 
provement," delivered before the Carriage 
Builders' National Association, at Syracuse, 
N. Y., October 17, 1889, he called attention 
to the condition of American roads, which, 
he said, were below the average, and he 
outlined a general and very comprehensive 
plan of improvement. He recommended a 
commissioner of highways, to be provided 
for in the agricultural department, with a 
corps of consulting engineers, each state to 
co-operate with the central bureau. By the 
division of the state into highway districts 
the best possible results could be obtained. 
The press all over the country commended 
Colonel Pope's address, which they desig- 
nated as being full of both practical and 
political suggestions. This was over a 
quarter century ago, and as many of the 
embodied suggestions have been adopted 
in several parts of the country, Colonel 
Pope's foresight is clearly proven. He later 
prepared pamphlets on "The Relation of 




col. albert a. pope 
(deceased) 



266 



THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 





I 



.., Illllll 

iiilf.l.l. 



I 





' I III 



Ml. I .. "' - 




TEMPLE ADATH ISRAEL, SYNAGOGUE OF THE JEWISH CONGREGATION, 
COMMONWEALTH AVENUE 



Good Streets to the Prosperity of a City" 
and "Road Making as a Branch of Instruc- 
tion in Colleges." 

In a work on "Wagon Roads as Feeders 
to Railways,"' published in 1892, Colonel 
Pope secured promises of aid from scores 
of railroad presidents and managers all over 
the Unitetl States and Canada, who agreed 
with him that good country roads would 
materially aid their lines and develop com- 
merce and manufacturing. 

This was Colonel Poije's most active life 
work. He always maintained that one of 
the foundation stones upon which rests the 
grand fabric of civilization ever^-where, is 
good means of communication — or, in other 
words, good highwaws. Unquestionablv, 
Colonel Pope started and developed the 
"Good Roads" movement that has resulted 
in vastly improved roads in nearly everv 
state and city in the Union. 

In addition to his large industrial inter- 
ests, Colonel Pope was a director of the 



American Loan and Trust Co., the ^^'in- 
throp Bank, and was connected with man_\- 
other corporations. He was greatly inter- 
ested in the social life of the city and held 
membership in the Algoncjuin, Country, 
Athletic and Art Clubs of Boston, was at 
one time president of the Beacon Society, 
commander of the Massachusetts Com- 
mandery of the Military Order of the Loyal 
Legion, prominent in (i. A. R. circles, a life 
meml)er of several charitable organizations 
and was a member of the Newton city gov- 
ernment for two }'ears. Colonel Pope was 
married September 20, 1871, to Miss Abby 
Linder, and the union brought six children 
— Albert Linder, ]\Iary Linder, who died in 
infancy; Margaret Rolierts, Harold Linder, 
Charles Linder and Ralph Linder Pope. 

Colonel Pope's death, which was deeply 
deplored by a large circle of friends and 
business associates, who resjiected and loved 
him for his integrity and kindly spirit, oc- 
curred August 10, 1909. 



THE ROOK OF BOSTOX 



267 



JA.MI':.S BROWN 

James Erown, president and general 
manager of the Hotel and Railroad News 
Compan\-. was horn at Lasswade, Scotland, 




JAMES BROWN 

in 1852. He was educated at the Greenoch 
Acadeni)-, Greenoch-on-the-Clyde, and af- 
terward entered (ilasgow Universit\' t" 
stud}- fur the Presljyterian ministr}-. but 
came to America before taking his degree. 
Earh- in his business career he was itlen- 
tified with several mercantile houses and 
finally started handling newspapers in a 
small way with his ])n_)ther, Hugh, in the 
South End. He was shortly afterwards 
made circulation manager of the Boston 
Post, and in 1887 he and his lirother organ- 
ized the Ibitel and Raih-oad News Co., \\ith 
Hugh Brown as presiilent and James Brown 
as treasurer. Upon the brother's death Mr. 
lirnwn succeeded tu the presidency. The 
com])any distributes the Boston papers to all 
the towns within a radius of ten nn'les of the 
State House and has grown to be one of 
the largest newspajjer distributing agencies 
in the cnnntr}-, and its system is considered 
to be the best ever devised. It has four 



hundred em|)l()\ees on its pa\rcill and ci in- 
ducts all the news st;uids . m the elevated 
and in the sulnvays and tunnels. 

Mr. Brown has one (jf the nmst artistic 
hiimes in Newtnn Centre, and has a choice 
cnlk-ctidU (if modern jiaintings bv noted 
-\nierican and foreign artists. He was mar- 
ried September 10, 1903, to Amy E. Linglev. 

He is a memljer of the Ro.ston Athletic 
Association, Boston Press Clul), the Bo.ston 
City Club and the Scots Charitable Societv, 
but takes little interest in club life, as he is 
.-esthetic in his taste and finds more ]ileasure 
in the artistic environment of his beautiful 
home. 

COL. CHARLES R. COD^L\N 

Col. Charles R. Codman, who traces his 

American lineage from the arrival of the 

"AlayHower," in 1620, was born at Paris, 

France, O c t o b e r 

28, 1829, while his 

parents were mak- 

i n g a Iuiroi)ean 

tri|). He graduated 

from Harvard in 

the Class of 1849 

and studied law. 

He was admitted to 

the Bar, but gave 

up his profession ti > 

enter the Union 

Army as Comman- 
der of the Fortv- 

fifth Massachu.setts 

Regiment. Colonel 

Codman served in 
the State Senate and the lower house of the 
Legislature and was ;i candidate for Mayor 
of Boston in 1878. He had been a life-long 
Kepublican but renonnced those principles 
when James (j. Jilaine was nominated for 
the Presidency, and in 1890 was an In- 
dependent Democratic nominee for Con- 
gress. He has been president of the Board 
of Overseers of Harvard Universitv, the 
Mas-sachusetts State Homeopathic Ho.s- 
l)ital, tlie lioston Provident Association, and 
is a member of the ALas.sachusetts Histori- 
cal Societv and the Union Club. 




COL. CH.\RLES R. CODMAN 



268 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



BENJAMIN P. CHENEY 

(deceased) 



Benjamin P. Cheney, who was one of the 

pioneers of transcontinental railway travel 
and the originator of the present efiticient 
express system, conceived the plan for the 
gigantic transportation business he after- 
wards organized while driving a stage coach 
in the first half of the last century. He was 
born at Hillsborough, N. H., August 12, 
1 81 5, the son of Jessie and Alice (Steele) 
Cheney, who were of early New England 
ancestry. His great-grandfather. Deacon 
Tristam Cheney, was one of the early set- 
tlers of Antrim, N. H., and his grandfather, 
Elias Cheney, served four years in the Rev- 
olutionary \\'ar. At the age of ten vears, 
Mr. Cheney was out of school and working 
in his father's blacksmith shop. Two years 
later he was working in a store at Francis- 
town, and at the age of sixteen was driving 
the stage between Nashua and Exeter. The 
following year he had the route between 
Keene and Nashua, driving fifty miles each 
day, and retaining the position until 1836, 
when he was sent to Boston to act as agent, 
at 1 1 Elm Street, which was the old-time 
centre for the northern stage routes. He 
was only twenty-two years old at this time, 
and six years later the plans he had formu- 
lated when a boy were consummated in the 
establishment of Cheney's Ex|)ress. Always 
ambitious and possessing the faculty of 
looking ahead, Mr. Cheney saw the possi- 
bilities of the express business, and brought 
to his new enterprise the indomitaljle energy 
that had sustained him during his long years 
of poverty and struggle. The line he first 
founded was between Boston and Montreal, 
and the route was over the Boston & Lowell 
Railroad as far as Concord, N. H., thence 
by stage messenger to Burlington, and from 
there by boat to Montreal. In 1852, he 
bought the express business of Fisk & Rice, 
and gradually absorbed other lines until he 
formed the United States & Canada Express 
Co., which covered the northern New Eng- 
land States, with nian\' branches. This great 



business, which had developed from an insig- 
nificant beginning, was conducted under Mr. 
Cheney's name for thirty-seven years, when 
it was merged into the American Express 
Co., of which the founder continued the 
largest owner and of which he was a direc- 
tor and treasurer until his retirement from 
active business. Mr. Cheney had previously 
acquired an interest in the "Overland Mail" 
to San Francisco, in the Wells, Fargo & Co. 
Express Co., and in the Vermont Central 
Railroad. These varied interests led to his 
connection with early western railroad en- 
terprises and he was one of the pioneers 
of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Air. 
Cheney's various enterprises had brought 
him a large fortune, and at a later ])eriod he 
invested largely in the Atchison, Topeka & 
Santa Fe Railroad and liecame pr(jminently 
identified with the San Diego Land & Town 
Co., and he was for many years a director 
of these companies and of the American 
Loan and Trust Co. from the time of its 
organization. Mr. Cheney occupied a fore- 
most place in the commercial world, and his 
reputation for business integrity was na- 
tional. His death, which occurred July 23, 
1895, was a cause of deep regret and sorrow 
to his associates and friends in the many 
states where he was popularly known. Mr. 
Cheney was a member of the Boston Art 
Club, and in 1886 he presented to his native 
state a bronze statue of Daniel Webster, 
designed by Thomas Ball, and this imposing 
art work stands in the State House Park, 
Concord, N. H. 

He was married June 6, 1865, to Eliza- 
beth Stickney Clapp, the union bringing five 
children, four of whom are still livmg. He 
resided on Marlborough Street in the Back 
Bay district, and had a summer home at 
Wellesle_y, the grounds of which extended 
nearly a mile along the banks of the Charles 
River, and it was one of the most beautiful 
and best kept estates in that location of 
magnificent homes. 




benjamin p. cheney 
(deceased) 

Capitalist and Railway Contractor, who constructed many Transcontinental Railroads 

and established an Express System that covered the New England States 

and several points in Canada. See opposite page. 




SEARS BUILDING 



The Sears Building which stands at the corner of Washington and Court 

Streets, was built in 1868, and has the distinction of being the 

first office building in Boston to install an elevator. 

The building has also been the home of many 

notable banks and institutions. 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 



Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER XVI 



ACCOINTANCY 




Its Okicix, Okvelopment axd I-'i'tuke 
A'v Robert Py.uirt. B.C.S.. C.r.J. 




^yj^^^l"^? CCOUNTANCY ina}- he de- 
tiiied as the liody of prin- 
ciples from which rules 
ailapted to the systematic 
.y( expression of business ac- 
tixities luav he drawn. 
From its earliest stages of development, the 
art has always stood in close relationship to 
the trade and ])arter nf the world, suggest- 
ing the onlv means from the most primi- 
tive forms of organized societ\', down 
thr<iugh the ages of our own time, for the 
precise arrangement and guidance in their 
respective orljits, of the commercial and 
economic transactions of mankind. 

Of all the arts that have contributed 
fundamentall)' to the progress of man 
throughout the transitional state from sav- 
age to civilized existence, it appears that 
the art of accountancy, if exceeded, in point 
of anticpiity, stands second only to the art 
of building, and that the t\\i) have in all 
])rol)ability flourished sitle b\- side from the 
ver)' dawn of measured human activity. 

Based upon ap])lied matliematics, eco- 
nomics and law, from accountancy as a 
science, has proceeded that distinctive and 
peculiar assemblage of precepts, methods 
and rules, that have made l)ookkeeping as 
a developed art, the inseparaljle companion 
of all progressive human acliieveinent. 

Approaching the subject from a scien- 
tific standpoint, accountancy may be re- 
garded in certain respects as the generic 
term ; and the art w hich aims solely at the 
exact registration antl classification of finan- 
cial data, or bookkee])ing in its broadest 



sense, the specific ; the underl_\ing and giw- 
erning ])rinciples of the science of account- 
ancy being the source from which the art 
ol bookkeeping in its mvriad forms of ap- 
plication may be said to arise. 

Extending the analogy — the accountant 
may be looked upon as the exponent or mas- 
ter of the science: indicating the princi])les 
and flesigning the .systems of account 
adapted to the conditions, character and 
])rospective growth of an enteri^rise — the 
classified ])resentation of the minuti;e of 
financial detail f.nlling directly within com- 
jjass of the duties of the bookkeeper. 

The work of the l)ookkeej)er is therefore 
synthetical : he records, classifies and com- 
]>iles; whereas the work of the accountant, 
in addition to the foregoing, is also in the 
highest degree analytical : investigation, 
verification, scrutiny and scientific interpre- 
tation of the facts pre.sented by the book- 
kee])er, forming the subject matter to 
which the judgment and experience of the 
accountant may be addres.sed. 

Although popularly appraised as a utili- 
tarian ;uid ])erha])s prosaic subject, nuich of 
interest may still be written, descriptive of 
the infinite variety of devices and forms that 
have marked the progress of the art through- 
out the centuries — its history linking the 
])resent with the mo.st distant records of 
the p;ist — leading the mind in retrospect 
back to transactions deciphered from the 
Cuneiform Inscriptions of the Persian Em- 
pire, 3500 V>.C.. to accounts of traffic, bank- 
statements, calculations of interest, and de- 
tails of elaborate svstems of taxaticjn left 



272 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



by the Egyptians, as well as to the use of 
the stylus and tablets of clay associated with 
the commercial supremacy of Assyria and 
Babylon — relics of the age that beheld the 
building of the pyramids, and the rise and 
fall of Tyre and Sidon, renowned emporia 
of the Ancient East. 

Downward through the corridors of time 
the steady development of the science may 
be traced, in touch always with the activities 
of manufacture and commerce, reflective of 
the ever increasing industry of the nations — 
expressive of the span that extends from the 
days of our worthy prototypes, the Scribes, 
to the present era of dictographs, multi- 
graphs, comptometers, etc. ; indispensable ac- 
cessories of the amazing degree of efficiency 
that now obtains throughout the marts of 
the civilized world. 

The origin of accountancy synchronized 
undoubtedly with the very beginnings of in- 
dividual and intertribal exchange, and it 
may therefore be assumed that the first re- 
corded sale for money, viz : the conveyance 
of the field and cave of Machpelah to Abra- 
ham for four hundred pieces of silver, was 
after all but incidental to the established 
usages of that remote period. 

The scriptural story of the division of the 
flocks and herds of Laban by Jacob at the 
well — familiar among the many instances of 
barter referred to in the Bible — the conduct 
of the great public granaries, building oper- 
ations and irrigation systems of Egypt, and 
the scores of commercial records, hoary with 
age, now lying in the vaults of the British 
Museum — are enduring witnesses of the an- 
tiquity of our profession, and suggestive of 
the vast manufacturing, mining, metal-work- 
ing and trading pursuits of the Babylonians, 
Assyrians and Hebrews, emphasize signifi- 
cantly the well established claim that the 
history of Commerce and Accountancy is 
in a large measure the real history of 
civilization. 

The public practice of accountancy in cer- 
tain form was recognized in England as early 
as in the reign of William of Normandy, 
and true to the national instincts of the peo- 
ple, it has since held a strongly entrenched 
position in the economic life of the nation. 



The field for general practice, however, 
has been very considerably broadened dur- 
ing the eight hundred odd years that have 
rolled into space since the introduction of 
the "Domesday Book," in 1066, and the 
organization of the Royal Treasury, or Ex- 
chequer, about a century later — from both 
of which sources we may arrive at a very 
fair appreciation of the status of account- 
ancy in those days, and consequently of all 
subsequent progress. 

Strange as it may seem, the "Duties and 
Responsibilities of Auditors" were pretty 
clearly defined and understood in England 
almost four hundred years ago — as may 
be gleaned from the "By-Laws" of the Pew- 
terers' Company dated in 1564, E. G. — ■ 
"Order for the Awdytours" : — ■ 

" Also it is agreed that there shall be foure 
awdytours chosen every yeare to awdit the Crafte 
accompte and they to paruse it and search it that 
it be parfect. And also to acconipt it, correct it, 
and allowe it so that they make an ende of the 
awdet thereof between Mighelmas and Christmas 
yearely and if defaute be made of ffenishinge 
thereof before Christmas yearely every one of the 
saide awdytours shall pay to the Crafte boxe . . . 
a pece." 

The extent to which the contents of the 
"Crafte-box" were augmented on this oc- 
casion has not been stated, but the general 
tone of the provisions contained in the "order 
for the awdytours" is one with which the 
latter day practitioner may not be altogether 
unfamiliar! 

The foundations for much of the sub- 
stantial progress that has since been made 
in the accounting art in the British Isles, 
as well as over the world in general in mod- 
ern times, were laid during this period ; and 
remarkable as that advancement has been, 
full credit for the production of the first 
svstematic manual of instruction upon the 
subject must not he withheld from the Ven- 
erable Italian Friar, Luca Paciolo, whose 
epoch-marking book — the first to set forth 
amply the principles of the double-entry 
system of accounting — was published to- 
wards the close of the fifteenth century. 
Although it was alleged by contemporary 
writers that the double-entry system had 
been followed in Italy for upwards of two 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



273 



liiiiidred years jirevinus to tlie advent of 
the Friar's celelirated book, and even as far 
back as in tlie time of Julius Cassar, the fact 
remains that the basis of all sulisequent de- 
velopment in every branch of the science 
was then given in concrete form to the 
world ; liringing us, as far as the statement 
and elaboration of principles are concerned, 
dinvn to the complexities of our own essen- 
tiall}' varied and broadened practice. 

Other authors have, of course, in the in- 
terim added substantially to the literature of 
the subject, but for generations afterward, 
their productions were visually in the form 
of translations, and not infrecjuently pref- 
aced as "after the form of A'enice." An 
interesting book by one John Gough ap- 
peared about a century later, entitled "A 
Profitable Treatyse called the instrument or 
boke to learn to knowe the good order of the 
keepyng of the famous reconyngs called in 
Latin Dare and Habere, in English Debit' r 
and Creditor." 

John IMillis of Southwark, another auth'T 
of repute, ]M'inted a book in whicii the 
preface ran as follows: — 

" I am but the renuer and reviver of an auncient 
old copie, printed here in London the 14 of August 
1543, collected, published, made and set forth by 
one Hugh Oldcastle, Schoelmaster, who by his 
treatyse then taught Arithmetikc and his boke in 
Saint Ollaves Parish and in Mark Lane." 

A Still later text-book, remarkable for its 
thoroughness, was published in London in 
1547, entitled "A notable and very excellent 
work expressyng and declaryng the manner 
and forme how to kepe a boke of accomptes 
or reconynges." 

Accountancy literature, always popular 
with the English, has undergone consider- 
able change since 1547, and it may be said 
in passing, as an illustration of the interest 
that is now taken in the subject, that the 
publications of the last twenty years, good, 
bad and indifferent, outnumber several times 
the combined product of all previous ages 
in the history of the profession. 

Addressing ourselves finally to the mod- 
ern practice of the science, and to the com- 
manding position that it occui)ies in the 
economic life of the nations of todav, little 



can be written that is not perhaps already 
(|uite well known to the majority of readers. 
Aside from the radical advance in technique 
that may lie noted in the preparation of 
financial documents and reports l)y qualified 
experts, demonstrative of the broati range 
of professional training that is now required, 
and of the high standards of perfection 
to which the science has been brought within 
recent years, there has been developed by 
the stupendous magnitude of modern manu- 
facturing operations, a degree of efficiency 
in accounting procedure, system building and 
cost finding, far in advance of anything- 
that the world has ever seen. Aflequate 
accounting provision for the conduct of 
undertakings demanding colossal aggrega- 
tions of capital operated I)y veritable armies 
of office men, statistical, financial and cleri- 
cal, enter daily into the problems confronting- 
the accounting profession of our time. 

So weighty, indeed, have become the re- 
sponsibilities entrusted to public accountants, 
that within the last quarter of a century, 
legislation affecting directly the professional 
and moral qualifications of the membership, 
has found expression upon the statute books 
of nearly every state in the LTnion, as well 
as in many other parts of the world. The 
granting of the C.P.A. degree in Massa- 
chusetts nia\' be said to e.xact a high order 
of abilit}' and integrity on the part of the pro- 
fession, and the experience of recent decades 
would seem to justify fulh' the jirecauticnis 
thus taken. 

The range of service required by the busi- 
ness public of the present da}' is lioth exact- 
ing and broad, enil)racing the solution of 
questions upon matters of accounting pro- 
cedure and financial policy, that affect for 
weal or for woe, the immediate guidance and 
ultimate security of practically every con- 
ceivable description of business venture — ■ 
and the claim may not be withheld that in 
very few of the professions, if in any, is the 
call for cool judgment, exact knowledge, and 
unswerving integrity of character, more 
necessary-. 

In regard to the future, it may be said 
that accountancy as a profession, although in 
several respects still new to the non-business 



274 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



■world, may now be looked upon as fairly 
launched in the eyes of the law ; and that the 
prospects for expansion seem to be unlim- 
ited. It has been claimed that there are up- 
wards of one million separate concerns, cor- 
porations, firms and individuals in business 
in the United States at present, exclusive of 
the dominion and republics to the north and 
south of us, and it has been conservatively 
estimated by one (if the foremost statisti- 
cians in the country that not over ten per 
cent of the possible field for practice has so 
far been developed, notwithstanding the fact 
that commercialism in the broadest accepta- 



tion of the term is the predominant charac- 
teristic of the age. 

The logic and spirit of the times, however, 
and the general trend of indications point 
steadil}- to the not distant day when a de- 
gree of supervision over all financial enter- 
prise, public, corporate and private, more 
searching and universal in its a])plication than 
the past has ever known, will be the watch- 
A\ord ; and in the light of the conditions 
anticipated, political and social, as well as 
economic, a future brilliant with promise 
for the time-honored profession of account- 
ancy may well be presaged. 




CHESTNUT HILL RESERVOIR AND DRIVE 



THE liooK OF BOSTON 



275 



KDWIX L. PRIDE, C.i'.A. 

Edwin L. l^ride, treasurer and directur nf 
Edwin L. Pride & Co., Inc., Chartered 
]'ul)lic .\ccciuntants, wa.-^ born in ilexerly, 
Mas.s., January 3, 1866, and was educated 
in the schools of his native vhv. He is a 
registered pharmacist and spent eiglit \ears 
of his early life in the drug business. Three 
years were afterwards devoted to the shoe 
trade, aiul then he passed the rigid exami- 
nation prescribed under the laws of the state 
of Massachusetts and became a I'ublic .Xc- 
countant. In the twentv-one vears that have 
interxened, he has been most successful 
and numbers man\- large manufacturing 
concerns, corporaticjus, banks and trust 
companies among his clients, giving employ- 
ment to scores of accountants, who work 
under his personal su])ervision. In addition 
to his interest in Edwin L. Pride & Co., 
Inc., he is a trustee of the Somerville Insti- 
tution for Savings and a directr:r of 
\\'illis A. Pride & Co., Inc. He is a thirty- 
second degree Mason, a Knight Teni]>lar and 
Shriner and is a member of the Chamlier of 
Commerce of Boston, the Chamber of Com- 
merce of the United States and the Boston 
Athletic Association. ]\Ir. Pride is a direct 
descendant of Thomas Pride, of England, 
who was one of the signers of the warrant 
to execute King Charles I. He is a Repub- 
lican in ]iolitics, is married and resides in 
Somerville. His offices are at 40 Central 
Street and are especialh' equi])])ed for the 
business of accountancy. 

J. EDWARD MASTERS, C.P.A. 

J. Edward Masters, resident ]3artner ()f 
the accounting firm of Price, \\'aterhouse 
& Co., president of the Certified Public .Ac- 
countants of Massachusetts and member of 
the Board of Examiners for the Registra- 
tion of Certified Public .\ccountants, was 
born in Millville, Pa.. June 18, 1873, and 
was educated at the W'estown ( Pa. ) Board- 
ing School. His early life was spent with 
various mercantile concerns and he entered 
the accounting ])rofessi(jn in Kjoo in Phila- 
del])hia. He came to Boston in Kjoy to o])en 



and 
This 

;iti(in 




an office for Price, \\ aterhouse & Co., 
was admitted to i)artnershi]) in 1914. 
firm has a wide and creditable reput, 
and is rec( ignized as 
one of the largest 
accounting firms in 
the world, having 
offices in all of the 
principal cities of 
the United States, 
]\Ie.xico, Xorth and 
South .America, 
Canada and Europe. 
Mr. Masters is a 
member of the Ex- 
change Club, Bos- 
ton City Club, Brae 
Burn Country Club, 
the Economic Club, 
the American As- '' ''''"''° """""^''■^ 
sociation of Pul)lic Accountants, and is as- 
sociated with several church and social clubs 
and societies. His offices are at 60 State 
Street. 

EDWIN SCOTT MORSE 

Edwin S. Morse, president, treasurer and 
director of the Edwin S. Morse Company, 
Inc., public accountants, was born in .Alna, 
Maine, November 28, 1850. He was edu- 
cated at the Roxbury Public Schools, and 
graduated fr<im the Roxbury High School 
in 1868. From the time of leaving school 
until 1892, he was engaged in various lines 
of commercial activity, but relinquished this 
work to enter the field of ])ul)lic accountancy. 
In the years that have intervened, he has 
been identified with many important cases. 
He was special accountant for the original 
Boston Finance Commission in the investi- 
gation that resulted in the present city 
charter, and was also accountant for the 
Commonwealth in the investigation of the 
Charity Fund collected by the Lawrence 
strikers. Mr. Morse comes of old New 
England ancestry, being descended from one 
of the five Mor.se brothers who came to 
America in 1635 and settled at Newburv, 
Mass. One of his ancestors built the fir.st 
frame house in Bath. Maine, and his pater- 



276 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



nal grandfather was in command at Wis- 
casset, in the War of 1812. In addition to 
his accountancy interests, Mr. Morse is sec- 




EDWIN S. MORSE 



retary, treasurer and director of the Trans- 
cript Press, Inc., of Dedham, Mass., pub- 
lishers of the Dedham Transcript; presi- 
dent and trustee of the Highland Co. ; and 
director of the N. Curtis Fletcher Co., Inc. 
He is a member of the Dedham Historical 
Society, the Men's Club, Business Associa- 
tion and Board of Trade, Dedham Improve- 
ment League, Norfolk Golf Club, Dedham 
Boat Club, Society for Apprehending Horse 
Thieves, clerk of the First Congregational 
Church, all of Dedham, where he resides, 
and a member of the Toy Town Golf Club, 
Winchendon, Mass. He was chairman of 
the Republican Town Committee of Ded- 
ham for several years, and a member of the 
Republican State Committee for three years. 
His offices are in the Tremont Building. 

ORLANDO C. MOYER, C.P.A. 
Orlando C. Moyer, certified public ac- 
countant, who is senior member of the 
Moyer & Briggs firm, with offices in the Old 
South Building, was born July 3, 1873, in 



Berks County, Pa. He attended the public 
and high schools, the State Normal School 
at Kutztown, Pa., and afterwards took the 
teachers' course at the LTniversity of Penn- 
sylvania and New York University. He 
taught in the high school in Chester, Pa., 
for six years and organized a commercial 
department there. He also performed the 
same work in the Atlantic City, N. J., high 
school. He took the degree of Bachelor of 
Commercial Science in the School of Com- 
merce, Accountants and Finance of the New 
York University, graduating siDinna citin 
laudc, and is a member of the Delta Mu 
Delta Society. He was for a time instructor 
in that institution, and then went to Sim- 
mons College as assistant professor in the 
Secretarial Department. He came to Boston 
in 1905, after having served an apprentice- 
ship with a leading firm of accountants in 
New York City, and began practice alone. 
After taking his C.P.A. degree in 1910 he 
organized the present firm, which is engaged 




ORLANDO C. MOYER 



in general accounting work with special em- 
phasis on constructive accounting and manu- 
facturing costs. Mr. Moyer is a Fellow of 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



277 



the Certified Public Accountants of Massa- 
chusetts, Inc., and a Fellow of the Ameri- 
can Association of Public Accountants. 
Since becoming- a resident of Boston, he 
organized the School of Commerce, Ac- 
countants and Finance at the Y. M. C. A., 
and is at the present time senior professor in 
the department of business administration 
at the Boston L'niversity. 

MOLLIS H. SAWYER, C.P.A. 
Ilollis H. Sawyer, of the firm of Ilollis 
H. Sawyer & Co., Certified Public Account- 
ants, was born at Charlestown, Alass., June 

12, 1863, and was 
e d u c a t e (1 at the 
^ harlestown High 
.School and Comers 
Business College. 
Air. Sawyer was 
connected with sev- 
eral large commer- 
cial houses, his last 
connection Ijeing 
with Swift & Co. 
I'or this concern 
lie organized and 
managed, with the 
assistance of a 
large stat¥, branch 
house departments 
of auditing, credits and supplies covering 
over 135 branches and allied corporations 
east of Buffalo. Pie began lousiness for 
himself August i, 1903, and has since 
handled some of the largest assignments out 
of Massachusetts. He is a member of the 
Boston Athletic Association, Brae Bum 
Country Club, Certified Public Accountants 
of Boston, American Association of Public 
Accountants, Sons of the American Revo- 
lution and the IVIasonic Fraternity. 

GEORGE LYALL, C.P.A. 
George Lyall, one of the best known ac- 
countants in the city, was born in Paislev, 
Scotland, December 11, 1853, and was edu- 
cated at the Pictou .\cadcmy, Pictou, Nova 
Scotia, graduating in 1868. Cpon finishing 



his academical course, he entered the employ 
of one of the oldest and largest shipping 
and marine insurance firms in Pictou, and 




MOLLIS H. SAWYER 




GEORGE LYALL 

during the sixteen years he retained this 
connection, gained a practical knowledge of 
accountancy that was of great benefit to him 
when he came to Boston in 1885. LTpon 
arrival here he became head bookkeeper and 
financial man for several large concerns in 
])OSton and vicinity, and after working 
along these lines for a number of years, 
took up the practice of public accounting 
in 1905. Mr. Lyall has been very success- 
ful and has a large clientele. He is secre- 
tary of the Certified Public Accountants of 
Massachusetts, Inc., and is a member of the 
Boston City Clulj, the Victorian Club, the 
Scots Charitalile Society, the Boston Scot- 
tish Societ}-, of which he is president, and 
is a Fellow of the American Association of 
Pul)Iic Accountants and the Certified Public 
Accountants of Massachusetts, Inc. Lie is 
a Mason and holds membership in the Hugh 
de Payens (^)nimandery at Melrose. While 
a resident of Pictou, he served as Alderman 
of that city during the years of 1883 '^'"1 



27S 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



1884. and was Census Commissioner of 
Pictou County in 1881. His offices are at 
79 Milk Street, and he resides at Melrose, 
Mass. 

AUGUSTUS NICKERSON. C.P.A. 

Augustus Nickerson, Certified Public Ac- 
countant, who has a large clientele among 
commercial concerns, was born in Boston, 

July 30, i860. He 
graduated from the 
English High 
School in 1877, ^"^1 
after a post-grad- 
uate course he en- 
tered the employ of 
Thomas Dana & 
Co., wholesale gro- 
cers, subsequently 
becoming associ- 
ated with F. Nick- 
erson & Co., sailing 
and steamship own- 
ers and general 
merchants, a n d 
treasurer of the 
Boston & Savannah Steam.ship Co., until 
1886. Mr. Nickerson began jjractice as a 
public accountant in 1893. He is a member 
of the Certified Public Accountants of 
Massachusetts and the American Society of 
Public Accountants, and has for two vears 
served on the E.xamining Board for Certi- 
fied Public Accountants. Mr. Nickerson is 
descended from William Nickerson, who 
located in Chatham in 1630, and Elder 
Brewster, who came over in the "May- 
flower." He holds membership in the So- 
ciety of Mayflower Descendants. His of- 
fices are at 60 Congress Street. 




AUGUSTUS NICKERSON 



To the north of Boston, and hing parth- 
in the towns of Winchester, Stoneham and 
Melrose, and the cities of Maiden and Med- 
ford, is the Middlesex Fells, a high wooded 
plateau, and containing in its thirty-two 
hundred acres some of the most beautiful 
scenery in New England. It is under 
the supervision of the ^Metropolitan Park 
System. 




HENRY A. PIPER 



HENRY A. PIPER, C.P.A. 

Henry A. Piper, who is unquestionably 
the dean of the accounting profession of 
Boston, was Ijorn at Alarlboro, Alass., 
Decemlier 29, 1836, 
and was educated 
in Boston. As a 
boy he entered the 
employ of Button, 
Richardson & Co., 
29 and 31 Federal 
Street, in 1852,] 
antl began the Inisi- 
ness of public ac- 
counting at 40 
Water Street in 
1879, removing to 
the Old South 
Building in 1904. 
Mr. Piper was at 
one time chairman 
of the Examining Board of the Massa- 
chusetts C.P.A. Mr. Piper is of old New 
England ancestry. His great-grandfather, 
Walter Piper, a rigger, resided in Newbury- 
])ort and came to Boston to rig the frigate 
"Constitution." 



TRUMAN G. EDWARDS 

Truman G. Edwards, senior member of 
the firm of Truman G. Edwards & Son, 
public accountants, was born in Worcester, 
Mass., June 14, 185 1. After receiving an 
education in public and private schools he 
entered the employ of the Bank of the 
Metro]X)lis and after five ■s'ears of service 
with that institution was with the National 
Bank of Redemption for twent)--nine \'ears. 
He adopted the profession of accountancy 
thirteen years ago, and his long years of 
training with financial institutions led him 
to specialize in the examination antl audit 
of banks and trust companies, and he num- 
bers many such among his clients. The 
firm's business extends throughout New 
England, and Mr. Edwards acts as auditor 
for niau}^ cotton mills. His office is in the 
Old South Building. 



TIIK ROOK OF ROSTOX 



270 



CHARLES E. ST.WWool^ 

Charles E. Stainviiod. wlm is known to 
all the corporate interests of New England 
h\- reason of his etihciencv and thorou!:;"h- 








CHAKI.KS I-. STANWOOD 



ness along accountancy lines, and who is 
vitally interested in State politics and in the 
government of the town of Needham, where 
he resides, was born in St. Albans, Maine, 
February 19, 1863. Fie was educated at the 
Revere grammar school. Revere, the New- 
burxport Fligh School and French's Com- 
mercial College. IJoston. .\fter comjileting 
his course at the latter institution he becaiue 
bookkeei)er for alcailing house and remained 
in that position from 1881 until i8():;. 
when he commenced practice as a public 
accountant. The thorough manner in which 
he executeil the business of his clients and 
the personal attention he gave to every detail 
of his profession attracted the attention of 
large corporate interests, and in a short time 
he was fairly deluged with requests for his 
services and found it necessary to em]iloy a 
large corps of able assistants. ]\Ir. Stan- 
wood is at the present time engaged in every 
phase of accountancy work, but the major 



]iorti(jn of his efforts is directed to the au- 
diting of accounts and in untangling ilie in- 
tricate financial ])roblems that frequently 
arise in the conduct of ])ublic service cor- 
porations, nuniicipalities and manufacturing 
companies. He has one of the most efficient 
equipments in the countrv at jS Devonshire 
Street, where he occupies nearly the entire 
fourth floor. Flere a staff of twent\' ac- 
countants and a half dozen stenographers or 
typists are bus\- preparing statements, from 
data constantly being secured, and formu- 
lating reports that will show at a glance the 
cost of production and the actual profit the 
manufacturer or merchant is making. Mr. 
Stanwood is a Republican in politics and 
was a member of the Massachusetts House 
of Representatives in k) 14-191 5. He has 
been Town Treasurer of Xeedliam since 
1905. ser\e<! as Selectman and ( Jverseer of 
the Poor for several }'ears. was a member 
of the Board of Health, and also Town 
-Auditor during 1889 and 1890. He is 
])resident of the Needham Real Estate As- 
sociates, ex-president of the I'oard of 
Trade, treasurer and trustee (jf the Glover 
Home and Hospital of Xeedhaiu. treasurer 
and director of the Blanking Machine Co., 
treasurer and tlirector of the Embden Camji 
Company and the Deerfield Conipanx', and 
secretarx' and director <d' the Boston Indus- 
trial Co. He is a luember of the Needham 
Heights \'illage, the W'ellesley Country and 
the Bo.ston Press Clubs, the National Elec- 
tric Fight Association, the Xorfolk Count\- 
Re])ubhcan Club, the Massachusetts Repuli- 
lican Club and the Chamljer of Comnierce 
of ]')oston, meiuber of the Xeedham Rod 
:uid (hm Club, Xeedham Republican Club, 
and the Iunl)den Rod and (iun I'lul), b'mb- 
den, ALaine. He also holds meiubershi]) in 
the Odd Fellows and the Masonic fraternit\', 
being Past ^faster of Xorfolk Lodge, a 
Knight Templar and a Shriner. His serv- 
ices to the l\epul>lican jiarty ha\'e been rec- 
ognized b\' re])eated recpiests to lieconie a 
.Senatorial candidate in the district where he 
resides. Mr. Stanwood comes of old New 
England ancestrx', his forbears, who settled 
in (doucester, Mass., in 1652, being prom- 



280 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



inent in Colonial afifairs. He is married and 
is the father of five sons and one daughter, 
three of the boys, Harold E., Francis J., 
and Augustus T., being associated with him 
in business, while the two younger sons are 
at college, where they have made special 
records in study and athletic events. The 
daughter is also a student at a Boston insti- 
tution of learning. 

ASA E. CHANDLER 

Asa E. Chandler, certified public ac- 
countant, was born at Duxljury, Mass., No- 
vember I, 1862, was graduated from the 

Partridge Academy 
in 1880 and in the 
same year became 
associated with the 
Hall Rubber Co., 
ten years later he 
became a public ac- 
c o u n t a n t , now 
being a Fellow of 
the Certified Pub- 
lic Accountants of 
Massachusetts, Inc., 
and of the Ameri- 
can Association of 
Public Account- 
ants. Air. Chandler 
comes of old New 
England ancestry, being directly descended 
from the well-known Adams familv. He is 




ASA E. CHANDLER 



a member of the Mount Vernon Lodge of 
Masons of Maiden, Mass. 

Mr. Chandler's ot^ces are at 19 Milk 
Street and his residence is in Maiden. 

W. CHESTER GRAY, C.P.A. 

W. Chester Gray, certified public ac- 
countant, was born in Boston, June 22, 
1876, and was educated in the public schools 

and the evening 

high school, which 
was supplemented 
by courses in en- 
gineering law, ac- 
count a n c y and 
finance at the Bos- 
ton Y. M. C. A. and 
:\I. N. T. S. He 
was associated with 
Harvey S. Chase 
& Co., and other 
leading accountants 
of the city prior to 
practicing for him- 
self, and was for a 
time one of the 
faculty of the College of Business Adminis- 
tration of the Boston University. Mr. 
Gray is a Fellow of the American Society 
of Public Accountants and the Certified 
Public Accountants of Massachusetts, Inc. 
During the Spanish-American war he was 
quartermaster in the navy. His office is at 
68 Devonshire Street. 




W. CHESTER GRAY 




HARVARD SQUARE, CAMBRIDGE, SHOWING THE SUBWAY TERMINAL FROM THE HARVARD GATE 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



281 




GUSTAVUS H. SPARROW 



(;USTA\'US H. Sl'ARROW. C.P.A. 

Gustavus H. Sparrow, Certitieel Pulilic Ac- 
countant, was born in Chatham, Mass., Oc- 
tober H), 1S76, and was echicated in the 

l)vil)iic schools of 
C'iielsea. After 
completing his 
schooling" he was 
f ( ir seven years in 
the employ of the 
White Bros. Manu- 
facturing Co., and 
served a like peri<Kl 
with the I'^astern 
Audit Co., Boston. 
J le took and passed 
the first C.P.A. ex- 
amination held in 
Massachusetts, and 
has since that time 
practiced his profession at 89 State Street. 
Mr. Sparrow's grandfathers on both sides 
were sea captains and natives of Chatham, 
the paternal forbear being captain of the 
first steamship to sail from Boston around 
Cape Horn to San Francisco, while his 
great-grandfather was formerly lighthouse 
keeper at Chatham. 

WM. FRANKLIN HALL, C.P.A. 

Win. Franklin ILall, who is one of the 
oldest certified public accountants in the 
cit\', was born in Charlestown. He received 
a sound preparatorv schooling and after- 
wards took up the study of bookkeeping and 
accountancy, final! v (jualifying under the 
laws of the State as a Certified Public Ac- 
countant. 

Mr. Hall's offices are in the Exchange 
Building, 53 State Street. He makes a 
specialty of accountancy in all its branches, 
giving careful attention to examinations and 
investigations and the designing of special 
forms for books of accounts. 

He is a Fellow of the Certified Public 
Accountants of Massachusetts, Inc., and the 
American Association of Public Account- 
ants. 



GIDEON M. MANSFIELD, C.P.A. 

Gideon M. Mansfield was born in Salem, 
^lass., November 10, 1853, and was edu- 
cated at the Dwight School, English High 
School and the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. Upon the completion (jf his 
schooling he entered the employment of 
Hayden, Guardenier & Co., changing in 
succession to Robert B. Storer & Co., Train, 
Hosford & Co., and Train, Smith & Co. In 
the twenty-six years he remained with these 
firms he rose from office boy to Ijookkeeper 
and finallv to office manager. Afterwards 
he decitled t<:) adopt the jjrofession of ac- 
countancy and later passed the first State 
examination and became a Certified Public 
Accountant of Massachusetts. Mr. Mans- 
field is a Fellow of the Certified Public Ac- 
countants of Massachusetts, Incorporated, 
and also a Fellow of the American Associa- 
tion of Public Accountants, and the Sons 
of the American Revolution. He is a great- 
grandson of Dr. Elisha Story, who was a 
member of the Boston Tea Party and who 
fought at Bunker LI ill and Lexington. His 
office is at 201 Devonshire Street, Boston 
Safe Deposit and Trust Co. Building. 

JAMES D. GLUNTS, C.P.A. 

Born in 1881, James D. Glunts came here 
as a boy. He attended the public schools, 
sold newspapers while stuilying. and entered 
business for himself Ijefore he was twenty 
vears of age. Through a lack of funds he 
was unsuccessful but gained valuable ex- 
])erience, which was of great benefit later 
in his career. He Ijecame associated with 
one of the biggest financial men in Boston 
and advanced to a position of great responsi- 
bilitv. He resigned his connection in 1905 
to enter the New ^'ork University, where 
he completed a three years' course in two, 
and graduated in 1907 with the degree of 
l').C.S. While a student at the L^niversity 
he was connected with one of the large banks 
of New York City, afterwards joining the 
.staff of Haskins & Sells, of New York and 
London, the largest public accounting firm 
in this country. This connection lasted until 
the fall of 1909, when he resigned to open 



282 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



an office in Boston for the general practice 
of accountancy, under the firm name of 
James D. Gkmts & Co., meeting with over- 



r 

1 


- - 1 


^^^^^^H 
^^^^T 


D 


^^H 






ij^ 


''■'t«^^H^^^H 


r^lHHHi 







JAMES D. GLUNTS 

whelming success from the very start. He 
has been entrusted with many important in- 
vestigations within the past few years, and 
is conceded to be one of the coming lead- 
ing expert accountants in the State. Mr. 



Glunts is a certified puljfic accountant under 
the laws of the State of ^Massachusetts as 
well as the State of New York, an honor 
held by very few accountants here, and is 
recognized as maintaining the highest ideals 
of the accountancy profession. He is a 
Fellow of the Society of Certified Public 
Accountants of Massachusetts, Inc., and of 
the American Association of Public Ac- 
countants. He represented the Massachu- 
setts society as a delegate to the convention 
of the American Association of Public Ac- 
countants, held at Seattle, Washington, in 
September, 191 5. He is a member of 
Shawmut Lodge, A. F. & A. M., the Eco- 
nomic Club of Boston, and various char- 
itable organizations. His offices are at 35 
Congress Street. 



The contribution of rubber to present day 
civilization has been much greater than ap- 
pears at first thought. A world without rub- 
ber would be a world of noise and suffering. 
Rubber enters into many articles of apparel, 
of hospital use, of laboratory use, and of 
electrical use. Without rubber autos would 
be almost unknown, even walking would be 
a hardship to hundreds of thousands of 
people who depend on rubber heels. There 
are many firms in Boston devoting them- 
selves to this rapidly increasing business. 




CANOEING ON THE CHARLES RIVER NEAR WALTHAM 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 




Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER X\1I 



MEDICINE AND SURGERY 



Eminent I'hysicians and Surgeons of Boston's Past and Present — The 

Hospitals and the Schools 




OSTON has a great and 
linnoraljle place in the his- 
tory of medicine and sur- 
gery in America. Two of 
the greatest adxaiices in 
modern niecHcal and surgi- 
cal science are identified with the name of 
this city. Other contrilnitions of immense 
value have also been made through the 
researches of Boston phvsicians. 

I-'rom the earliest days the healing art 
has been represented bv men of the highest 
standing in the community. Instead of be- 
ing handicapped by considerations of social 
and class prejudice, as in the mother coun- 
try, physicians and surgeons have here been 
honored by virtue of their calling, which 
in America has ah\ays been regarded as one 
of the three great professions. 

In our New England beginnings the 
"doctor" ranked with the minister as a lead- 
ing man in the community, and was cor- 
respondingly active in ])ublic aiifairs — a 
tradition that has always persisted. In the 
provincial Congress of Massachusetts Bay, 
in 1 774- 1 775, there were twenty-two doc- 
tors, representing as many different locali- 
ties. No person is more highly ranked in 
this community Ijy virtue of his vocation 
than is a doctor of medicine or surgery. 

The first practicing ])h)'sician in New- 
England was one of the Pilgrims of Plym- 
outh, Dr. Sanuiel Puller, whose nuiuerous 
descendants thereby trace their ancestry 
back to the "Ma\fi(nver." Dr. Fuller had a 
wide range of ])ractice in the two colonies; 
it is recorded that in iC\y) he was called to 



patients living as far away as Salem and 
Charlestown. The first resident doctor in 
Boston was William Gager, who was set- 
tled here in 1630. ( )ther early ones 
were Giles Fairman (1634), James Oliver 
(1640), and John Clark, Sr. John Win- 
throp, Jr., who became the first governor of 
Connecticut, was trained in medicine and 
two of the earlier presidents of Harvard 
College, John Rogers and Leonard Hoar, 
were physicians. 

The state of medicine in Winthrop's day 
mav be inferred from a recipe sent to Win- 
throp in 1656 b}' Sir Kenelm Digby as 
"good for all sorts of ulcers and mending 
suddenly broken bone." It consisted of one 
ounce of powdered crab's eyes dissolved in 
four ounces of strong vinegar (taste "like 
dead beere without any sharpness"). The 
first surgeon was Robert Morley, "barber- 
surgeon," who in England had been servant 
to a physician. It is notable that the first 
woman to practice medicine was Margaret 
Jones, "physician and doctress," — also the 
first person to be executed for witchcraft ! 

The early eighteenth century was distin- 
guished in Boston by an event of trans- 
cendant importance — the first of the two 
great advances aforementioned. Curiously 
enough, in the period of popular agitation 
that attended this occurrence, the Rev. Cot- 
ton Mather, \\hii had been identified with 
superstitiim ,-ind intolerance, here took the 
part of liberalism, while on the other hand, 
lienjamin Franklin, in the most active phase 
of his youtliful life in i'xistniL led as a cham- 
piiin of ignorance and popular jircjudice. 



284 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



The matter in question was the first great 
step in dealing with the terrible scourge of 
smallpox, which, in those days, afflicted 
sixty per cent, of the population and caused 
ten per cent, of all deaths from disease. 

An adventurous young Scotch doctor, 
William Douglass, born in 1690, had, after 
living in the West Indies, turned up in Bos- 
ton in 1 718. He had brought a letter to 
Cotton Mather ; when he delivered it he lent 
to the clergyman a collection of recent scien- 
tific papers that had appeared in London. 
Mather, scholar that he was, looked these 
over with much interest, and was particu- 
larly impressed l\v a copy of the famous 
paper by Timonius on "Turkish Inocula- 
tion." This epochal document, written by 
Dr. Emanuel Timoni Alspeek, who had 
studied at Oxford and at Padua and had 
travelled in the Orient, described the Turk- 
ish method of inoculating artificially for 
smallpox, observing that persons thus in- 
oculated with virus from a person suffering 
from the disease commonly had a lighter 
form of the malady. This paper had been 
published in 171 7 and practically no atten- 
tion had been given it. At that time Boston 
was suffering from a severe epidemic of 
smallpox and Mather became interested to 
see the method described practically tested. 
He tried to persuade the young Scotchman 
to undertake the experiment, but Douglass 
declared the risk too great and indignantly 
refused. Mather determined that it be tried, 
whereupon Douglass, able, brilliant and 
irascible, stirred up the great body of resi- 
dent doctors in opposition. Popular excite- 
ment followed, and the adolescent Franklin 
led a press campaign against the proposition 
in language virulently denunciatory. Ef- 
forts to secure legislative prohibition of the 
attempt nearly succeeded, and the populace 
was stirred to mob violence. Mather at last 
succeeded in interesting Dr. Zabdiel Boyls- 
ton of Brookline in the idea. Zabdiel 
Boylston was a son of Dr. Thomas B. 
Boylston, an Oxford graduate settled in 
Brookline in 1635, where the son was born 
in 1684. Dr. Roby of Cambridge and Dr. 
Thompson of Roxbury also joined the cour- 



ageous minority in advocacy of inoculation. 
Dr. Boylston, after inoculating his own son, 
a bo}- of thirteen years, induced his nephew, 
a Roxbury clergyman named Walter, to 
suljmit to treatment. By this time night 
riots were stirred vip and bombs were 
thrown. Cotton Mather's house, where 
Walter was under treatment, was attacked 
and a lighted bomb was thrown into 
Walter's room. The fuse broke and no 
harm was done. W^ith the bomb went a 
written message : 

"Cotton Mather I was once of your meet- 
ing but the cursed lye you told of — You 
know who, made me leave you, you dog. 
And damn you I will enoculate you with 
this — with a pox to you." 

Walter had been successfully inoculated 
on June 2"], \y2i. In the first year two 
hundred and eightv-six persons were inocu- 
lated and six of the number died, — one in 
forty-eight. So great was the popular dread 
of the disease that, after so convincing a 
demonstration of the effectiveness of the 
method, there was a general desire to secure 
immunity in that way. The doctors aban- 
doned their opposition and Douglass even 
attempted to make it appear that, in being 
instrumental in calling Mather's attention to 
the subject, he himself was the true and 
original jir^phet in the case! By a coin- 
cidence, attention in London had been 
drawn to the subject at about the same time, 
and something like six weeks before the in- 
oculation of Walter, Lady Mary Montague 
had been inoculated by Maitland. Bojlston 
was deservedly honored for his work, and 
achieved high standing in his profession. 
A'isiting London, he was handsomely re- 
ceived by King George I, who made him a 
present of a thousand guineas. Walter was 
made a member of the Royal Society, the 
first American to be thus honored. 

In the Revolutionar_y period nearly all the 
Boston doctors were identified with the 
])atriot cause, serving A\ith the Continental 
army. There were only a few Tory doctors. 
Among the members of the Provincial Con- 
gress were Benjamin Church of Boston, 
Isaac Foster of Charlestown, Joseph War- 



THE BOOK OP' BOSTON 



285 



ren of R()xl)urv and liis lirothcr Jcihn, 
twelve years younger, then ])ractising in 
Salem. Church rose to Ije head of the medi- 
cal corps in the army and was made 
surgeon general. He was leader uf his ])ro- 
fession in Boston, with a large practice. His 
fame was blotted, for he was detected in 
corresponding with the enemy in cipher. 
He made an able defence, but the evidence 
was strong against him. He was dealt with 
leniently. 

The war was practically o\er in 1781 
when two important events occurred : the in- 



two thousand pnunds, of which one thou- 
sand was bequeathed by Dr. ]''.zekiel Hersey 
of Hingham, live hundred bv Mrs. Hersey, 
and hve hundred by Dr. Abner Hersey a 
l)riither of Dr. ]-".zekiel Hersey. Dr. Warren 
was made professor of anatomy and sur- 
gery; Dr. Benjamin \\'aterhouse, of the 
Theory and Practice of Medicine ; Dr. Aaron 
De.xter, of chemistry and Materia Medica. 
Dr. Waterhouse was the first to introduce 
vaccination in America. 

Dr. Warren was the first of a distin- 
guished line in his profession : His son was 




MASS.'VCHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL, CORNER OF BLOSSOM AND ALLEN STREETS 



corporation of the Massachusetts Medical 
Societ}' on November i, and of the Harvard 
Medical School in the same year. The soci- 
ety was authorized to grant certificates of 
competence, but was not permitted to confer 
degrees. 

Dr. John \\'arren, the lirilliant young 
brother of Dr. Joseph Warren, had been in 
charge of the .\rmy Hospital that had been 
established at the \\'est ]^nd, not far from 
where the Massachusetts General Hc«pital 
now stands. His lectures on anati>ni\-, given 
at the hiispital, were largeh' attended. 
When the Medical Schcinl was established 
it started with endowments amountin"- to 



John Collins Warren (177S-1856), father 
to Mason Warren (1S11-1867), who in 
turn was father to the present J. Collins 
Warren (1842). The fir.st John Collins 
Warren was associated w'ith Doctors Jack- 
son, Gorham, Jacob Bigelow, and Channing 
in estaljlishing the Massachusetts General 
Hospital in 181 i. He also established the 
Xcz^' Eiiijlaiul (niiw the Boston) Journal 
of Mciliciiw anil Surgery, and founded the 
\\'arren Museum of Comi)arative Anatomy 
and i'al;eontolog\' (jn Chestnut Street. He 
was devoted to the stud\- nf comparative 
anatomy and pakcontology and founded the 
Warren Museum of Natural Historv on 



286 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Chestnut Street. Dr. \\'arren stood sponsor 
for the epochal experiment with ether at the 
Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Dr. Jacob Bigelow (i 787-1879) was one 
of the most brilliant figures in the history of 
American medicine. His talents were mani- 
fold. He was a born artist, artificer, crafts- 
man, mechanician and inventor. He took a 
livel}' interest in everything that was going 
on about him and was insatialjly curious as 
to mechanical processes of all sorts. He was 
a botanist of exceptional accnmplishment and 
a poet. He was the first Rum ford professor 
of chemistr}- at Harvard. He originated 
the project of a rural cemetery at Mount 
Auburn, to relieve the unh}-gienic conditions 
of interments in the city l)urying grounds 
and vaults — the first of its kind in the world. 
He induced the ^Massachusetts Horticultural 
Society to undertake the Mount Auburn en- 
terprise, to its great profit. He designed 
the plan of the cemetery and was the archi- 
tect of the gateway. He commissioned the 
sculptor Martin Milmore to model the mon- 
ument, "The Sphinx," erected as a memorial 
to the soldiers of the Civil War buried at 
Mount Auburn. Dr. Bigelow's paper on 
"Self-Limited Disea.ses," published in 1835, 
exerted an immense influence on the medical 
practice of the day. Dr. Henry Jacob Bige- 
low was his son. 

Dr. James Jackson (1777) brought vac- 
cine virus from London to Boston in 1800. 
It was he who was instrumental in securing 
the removal of the Harvard Medical School 
to Boston. 

The Boston dentist, Dr. W. T. G. Mor- 
ton was the prime figure in the great 
experiment that demonstrated to the world 
the value of sulphuric ether as an anaesthetic 
in surgery and revolutionized surgical prac- 
tice. The an;esthetic properties of both 
ether and nitrous oxide gas had been known 
for a long time before, but no advantage 
had been taken of the fact until, in 1842, 
Dr. Crawford W. Long, an obscure physi- 
cian in Georgia, had employed it in his prac- 
tice, but without attracting more than local 
attention. It is notable that Dr. ^Morton, 
whose first e.xperiments with ether had been 



conducted at Hartford while in partnership 
with Dr. Wells, a dentist in that city, should 
also have tested "laughing gas" as a possible 
means to the ends sought. When Dr. Mor- 
ton settled in Boston he went about his 
researches systematically, with a view to 
substantial profits as well as professional 
honors. Lie purchased his materials with 
due precautions from two leading druggists, 
Joseph Burnett and Theodore Metcalf, and 
consulted Dr. Jackson at the Massachusetts 
General as to the proi)erties of ether. Finally 
he induced Dr. Jackson to conduct a test at 
the hospital. This took place on a memo- 
rable dav in Octoljer, 1846, in the presence 
of eminent physicians and surgeons. The 
announcement to the world was made by Dr. 
Henry J. kiigelow at a meeting of the Amer- 
ican Academy of Sciences on November 3, 
and six days later before the Boston Society 
for Medical Imjirovement. It first appeared 
in print in the Boston Medical and Surgical 
Journal on November 18. Dr. Morton had 
given the name of "letheon" to ether thus 
employed, and for a while it was so called. 
It was Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes who 
first suggested the terms "anaesthesia" and 
"an;esthetic." 

Other Boston men distinguished in medi- 
cal history are Joseph Lovell, born in Bos- 
ton, December 22, 1788, the first surgeon- 
general of the United States Army; Henry 
Ingersoll Bowditch (1808-1892), an ex- 
ponent of advanced French methods in med- 
ical practice and a specialist in diseases of 
the chest and in paracentesis; Dr. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), a brilliant 
anatomist and the first to demonstrate the 
contagious nature of child-l)ed fever; Jona- 
than Mason Warren ( 1811-1867), a great 
surgeon; and Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818- 
1890), "the autocrat of New England 
surgery." 

Boston alone, not to mention the various 
Greater Boston communities, has something 
over one hundred hospitals, dispensaries, 
asylums, and sanatoriums. Some of these 
are private institutions, maintained either 
individually or in associated groups by 
physicians and surgeons, for the sake of car- 



'II n-: P.OOK OF BOSTOX 



2S7 



iui^ for their patients umler their own super- 
vision, often with the aid of c<jnsuUing 
specialists. But the most of these institutions 
are pul)hc or quasi-public in nature, estab- 
lished for purposes of philanthropy. The 
ciuasi-public ones are either heavily en- 
dowed, or are dependent upon philanthropic 
aid. This indicates the vast amount of 
wealth and charitable activity that here in 
Boston is devoted alone to this field of well- 
doing — something that speaks volumes for 
the element of public spirit in the com- 
munity, largely exerted unostentatiously 
and quietly. 



surgery. Beside the Harvard Medical 
School, on Longwood Avenue, stand the 
Harvard University Dental School and 
Hospital, the .\ngell Memorial Animal Hos- 
pital, and the Children's Hospital. Near by 
are also the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital at 
Francis Street and Huntington Avenue; the 
Robert Breck Brigham Hospital, on Parker 
Hill; the Channing Home for Consumptive 
Women, at Francis Street and Pilgrim 
Road ; Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hos- 
pital (for cancer patients), 695 Huntington 
Avenue; New England Deaconess' Hospi- 
tal, 175 Pilgrim Road; the Nursery for 




BOSTON CITY HOSPITAL, S18 HARRISON AVENUE 



These institutions are scattered all over 
the city — many of them located in the resi- 
dential suburban districts : Dorchester, Rox- 
bury, West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and 
Brighton. ^lost important is the group lo- 
cated in the new "Medical Quarter," con- 
gregated aliout the Harvard Medical 
School : a most imposing assemblage — the 
like of it, either in numlier, quality, or in 
monumental housing, not to be found in any 
tjther American city. Large mutual advan- 
tages are naturally derixed frcjui the con- 
centration of so many differentiated institu- 
tions in one neighljorhood, each l)earing 
some definite relationship to medicine and 



Blind Babies, 147 South Huntington 
Avenue; the \'incent Memorial Hospital, 
1.25 South Huntington Avenue; the Forsyth 
Dental Infirmary, on the Fenway; Tufts 
College ]\Iedical School, on Fluntington 
Avenue near Massachusetts Avenue. 

Here may be enumerated some of the 
other notable institutions of the kind: Bos- 
ton State Hospital ( for the insane ; western 
group and eastern grou]i, on the Austin and 
Pierce Farms, Dorchester; Psychopathic de- 
])artnient, 24 Fen wood Road) ; Adams 
Nervine Asylum. (;(;o Centre Street, Jamaica 
Plain (for nervous ])atients ) ; Walter I!aker 
Sanitarium, 5J4 Warren .Street, Roxbury; 



288 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Boston Consumptives Hospital, 249 River 
Street, Mattapan : Boston Floating Hospi- 
tal, Boston Harbor (for infants, in the 
summer) ; Carney Hospital, Old Harbor 
Street, South Boston; Cullis Consumptive 
Home, Blue Hill Avenue and Seaver Street; 
Free Home for Consumptives, 428 Quincy 
Street, Dorchester; Gordon Home for 
Aged People and Incurables, 28 Montebello 
Street, Jamaica Plain; Homoeopathic Hos- 
pital, Harrison Avenue and East Concord 
Street, New England Hospital for Women 
and Children, Dimock Street, Roxbury; St. 
Luke's Home for Convalescents, Roxliury ; 
St. Margaret's Hospital, 86 Cushing Avenue, 
Dorchester; St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Brigh- 
ton; St. Mary's Hospital, 90 Cushing 
Avenue, Dorchester; Salvation Army Ma- 
ternity Hospital, 103 Train Street; United 
States Marine and United States Naval 
Hospitals, Chelsea. 

The numerous dispensaries in Boston are 
important institutions. The Boston Dis- 
pensary, the oldest of its kind in the country, 
was founded in 1796 and incorporated in 
1 80 1. It divides the city into nine districts, 
its central office at Bennet and Ash Streets, 
where patients are treated medically and 
surgically and medicines are dispensed. 
Each district is in charge of a physician, 
who treats at their homes persons unaljle to 
go to the central office. There are various 
general dispensaries in different quarters of 
the citv ; also special dispensaries connected 
with hospitals, devoted to specific diseases. 

Hospitals and medical schools are closely 
related ; in both respects Boston is extraor- 
dinarily well equipped. We have seen how 
the Harvard Medical School in a way was 
an offspring from the Continental Army 
Hospital established at the W^est End during 
the Revolution, under Dr. John ^\'arren. 
And when the Medical School was removed 
to Boston it ultimately became a next-door 
neighbor of the Massachusetts General Hos- 
pital in almost the same location — the Hos- 
pital furnishing the school invalualile oppor- 
tunities in the way of clinical work, while 
the latter supplied the Hospital with in- 
terns and other officers from its graduates 



This intimate connection has always per- 
sisted, still continuing although the school 
has been removed to a distant quarter of the 
city. The staff of the hospital and the fac- 
ulty of the school are largely identical. 

The Massachusetts General Hospital is 
one of the largest and best organized insti- 
tutions of the kind in the country, and the 
second oldest, the Pennsylvania Hospital 
in Philadelphia being its senior. It was 
founded in 1799, incorporated in 181 1, 
and was opened for patients in 1821. From 
the start it has always occupied its present 
convenient location, but has expanded enor- 
mously to meet the demands of a commu- 
nity which in less than a century has grown 
to metropolitan dimensions. A bequest of 
five thousand dollars in 1799 for hospital 
purposes was its beginning. When it was in- 
corporated, twelve years later, liberal provi- 
sion was made for an extensive institution. 
The Legislature granted the old Province 
House property on condition that one hun- 
dred thousand dollars additional be raised 
within ten years. Later, in 1818, a source 
of large and permanent income was pro- 
vided by the incorporation of the Massachu- 
setts Hospital Life Insurance Company with 
the condition that one-third of the net 
profits go to the hospital — a condition that 
in 1835 likewise attended the incorporation 
of the New England Mutual Life, and in 
1844 the State Mutual Life Assurance of 
Worcester. These sources, together with Ije- 
quests and gifts, have provided a large 
income, more than six huntlred thousand dol- 
lars being permanently invested for free 
beds. One of the earliest benefactors was 
John McLean (whose name was given to 
the street leading westerly to the hospital). 
He left one hundred thousand dollars to the 
hospital, and fifty thousand dollars to be 
divided lietween it and Harvard College. 
The McLean Asylum for the Insane (a 
branch of the hospital established in 1816) 
was named in his honor. The asylum is 
now in the suburb of Belmont on a sightly 
hillside. Another notable founder was John 
Lowell. The architect of the granite main 
building was Charles Bulfinch; the stone. 



THr-: BOOK OF BOSTON' 



289 



from the Chelinsturd (juarries, was ham- 
mered by convicts at the State Prison. Four 
large wards, added in 1873- 1875, are named 
in commemoration of Drs. James Jackson, 
Jolni CoHins Warren, Jacob Bigelow, and 
S. D. Townsend. Patients from all parts of 
the United States and the British Provinces 
are eligible to treatment, either free or at 
cost. Infectious, chronic or incurable cases 
are barred, but these find treatment in other 
institutions. The hnspital has a large train- 
ing school for nurses and a convalescent 
establishment at Belmont. 



are admitted. In 1882 an out-patient de- 
partment was established. The institution 
has a branch at 174 Flarrison Avenue. 

An institution which includes a function 
of similar character is St. Mary's Infant 
Asylum and Lying-in Hospital at Everett 
Avenue and Jerome Street. It is now a 
rapidly increasing custom for prospective 
mothers of all classes to resort to a hospital 
for sake of the better care to be had there. 
Hence it is common for the general hospi- 
tals to have maternity departments. The 
private "Twilight Sleep'" Maternity Hos- 




Ed-Mard T. P. Graitiim, Arckilfct 
ST. tl.IZABKTH's HOSPITAL, 75U CAMBRIDGE STREET, BRIGHTON 



Near by, on Charles Street, is the [Mas- 
sachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirm- 
ary, estaliiished by the efforts of Drs. Ed- 
ward Reynolds and John Jeffries in 1824, to 
relieve persons unalile to afford treatment 
elsewhere. It was incorporated in 1827. 
Its services are without charge; even glasses 
are given when requiretl. 

Another old Boston institution domiciled 
in the immediate neighl)orhood (jf the ^Ia.s- 
sachusetts General is the Boston L\in£:-in 
Hospital at 24 and 26 McLean Street, or- 
ganized in 1832 to carry poor and deserving 
women through the period of confinement. 
The greatest care is taken to exclude women 
of bad or doubtful character, although un- 
married women pregnant for the first time 



jjital of Dr. Eliza T. Ransom, operating 
under modern methods, is mentioned else- 
where. 

The Boston City Ilospital, occupying the 
square between Flarrison Avenue, Concord, 
Allxiny and Springfield Streets, was estab- 
lished l)y the city in 1864 under legislation 
enacted in 1858. The administration build- 
ing, with its dome, shows handsomely from 
\\'orcester Square. The agitation for the 
hospital began in 1849 tnider the excitement 
caused by the cholera epidemic. It was in 
that year that Elisha Goodnow bequeathed 
to the city property to the value of about 
twenty-one thousand dollars, to be used for 
hospital purposes, one-half of the fund to 
be applied to establishing and maintaining 



290 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



free beds. The hospital ranks as one of the 
greatest and best municipal institutions of 
the kind in the country. It is intended 
mainly for poor patients, resident in Boston, 
and also for the benefit of persons needing 
medical or surgical treatment and who are 
not to be regarded as subjects for charity. 
These are charged according to their means. 
In 1880 the hospital was incorporated. The 
board of trustees, appointed by the mayor, 
is authorized to receive personal estate, given 
or bequeathed, to an amount of not exceed- 
ing one million dollars. The hospital has a 
special relief station on the site of the old 
Boston & Maine Railroad station on Hay- 
market Square, and another in East Boston, 
and maintains a convalescent home in 
Dorchester. 

The New England Hospital for W^omen 
and Children, Codman Avenue, Roxburv, 
notable for its staff composed of educated 
Avomen physicians, was established in 1862 
and incorporated in 1863. It originated in 
the clinical department of the Female Medi- 
cal College of Boston, the pioneer institution 
of its class in the world — merged in the 
Boston Uiiiversitv School of Medicine in 
1874. 

The Massachusetts Homoeopathic Hospi- 
tal, on Harrison Avenue, was chartered in 
1855, but remained inactive until 1870, 
Avhen a small house on Burroughs Place was 
hired ; it was opened there the next year 
with fourteen beds. The attempted expul- 
sion of eight prominent homceopathic prac- 
titioners from the ^lassachusetts Medical 
Society for unbecoming and unworthy con- 
duct aroused a strong popular interest for 
homoeopathy; a public fair realized over 
eighty thousand dollars for the hospital, and 
the nucleus of the present extensive building 
was erected, opening in May, 1876. In 
1 88 1 the city conveyed to the hospital a 
large additional tract for extensions. It is 
notable that the methods of Allopaths and 
Homoeopaths have under modern develop- 
ments so converged that the latter are now 
recognized by the Massachusetts Medical 
Society as eligible to membership, while in 



many hospitals physicians of the two schools 
often consult and practice side by side. 

The Carney Hospital, on Dorchester 
Heights, South Boston, was founded by a 
gift of thirteen thousand, five hundred dol- 
lars from Andrew Carne\-, and incorporated 
in 1885. It was established to relieve the 
sick poor, but is also appreciated by many 
pay patients. Although in charge of the 
Sisters of Charity, it is not a sectarian insti- 
tution, and patients of all religious views 
are welcomed. It is told that a Baptist 
clergyman, under treatment there, feeling 
that he was dying, desired consolation by 
a minister of his own faith. The sister in 
attendance went out in the night to summon 
one ; soon there was to be seen by his bedside 
a Baptist minister, while near by a Roman 
Catholic clerg}-man was administering the 
last sacrament to a dying Catholic. 

The two Brigham Hospitals, both in the 
same neighborhood but radically different 
in function, have a notable history. Two 
brothers, long associated in the hotel and 
restaurant business in Boston, both left their 
large fortunes in trust for hospital purposes. 
Peter Bent Brigham, who for many years 
lived in a large house at Bulfinch and 
Allston Streets in the old West End, dying 
first, left his money to found a hospital for 
the benefit of the poor of Boston and the 
rest of Suffolk County. Robert Breck 
Brigham, a few years later, specified that 
his estate should be devoted to a hospital for 
incurable patients. The former left prop- 
erty which, when it came to its intended 
use, amounted to something like five million 
dollars ; the bequest of the latter to about 
four million dollars. Two large and per- 
fectly equipped institutions, each doing ad- 
mirable work in its field, were the result. 
The Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, adjacent 
to the Harvard Medical School, has been de- 
veloped on a basis similar to that of the 
Massachusetts General Hospital, while the 
Robert Breck Brigham Hospital on Parker 
Hill, near by, in accordance with the spirit 
of the bequest, is devoted to incurables and 
to patients suffering from chronic disease. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



291 



Nearl\- all hospitals of any mag'iiitucle 
iinw ha\c thuir training-schools for nurses. 
Hence a nurse without a diploma from a 
-schdol of character is not recognized in reg- 
ular practice any more than a physician 
\\'Oukl he. The v(5cation of nurse is now 
an important ])rofession; an inilispensalile 
adjunct to the physician and surgeon. It 
is notable that the first training-school was 
established 1)\- the New England Hospital 
for Women and Children in 1863. These 
schools are for woman nin"ses onlv. The 



lished in ijSj. Its course is now for four 
years: only graduates of colleges of rec- 
ognized standing, or with an equivalent ed- 
ucation, may become students. Annually a 
niunber of advanced students are selected 
f(jr house-officers in the various hospitals in 
or near Boston. Its present location in the 
superl) marble group oi niouumental Iniild- 
ings on Longwood Avenue, with its beauti- 
ful central court at the head of Louis Pas- 
teur Avenue, is the fifth site it has occupied 
since its removal from Cambridge to Bos- 




%.^\ 



'f1ii|"l! 

nhmW 

' 'C'Viji-''-'" '' 



^k 



J 






MASS.^CHCSETTS HOMCEOPATHIC HOSPITAL, 750 HARRISON AVENUE 



two largest Boston schools are those of the 
Massachusetts General and the City Hospi- 
tals. That (d' the Massachusetts General, 
established in 1873, was incorporated in 
1875 as the Boston Training School for 
Nurses. It is in charge of twenty-four 
woman directors. As usual in all such 
schools the course is for two years, and 
pupils are recognized as full nurses on pass- 
ing the examination for the second \ear. 
Far from being regarded as a "menial" voca- 
tion, the calling of nurse is in good social 
standing; it is not uncommon for girls of the 
best families to pursue the studies. 

The Harvard Medical School was estab- 



ton. The school began work in the old 
Holden Chapel of Harvard College in 1783 
as the result of a course of lectures before 
the Bciston Medical Library by Dr. John 
Warren. In 18 10 it was ren:oved to Bos- 
ton, occupying rooms at 49 Marborough 
(now Washington) Street. Six years later 
it was removed to what became the 
School Committee Building on Mason 
Street, now owned by the cit\'. After thirty 
}ears in this location it was removed in 1846 
to a new building on North Grove Street, 
erected for it on land given by Dr. George 
I'arkman, of tragic memory. In 1883 it 
was removed to the building at Boylston and 



292 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Exeter Streets, now the home of the Boston 
University College of Liberal Arts, erected 
for the Medical School at a cost of two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, sub- 
scribed by friends of the institution. It was 
believed that this building, then a model of 
its kind, would serve well for forty years. 
But in fifteen years it was outgrown. 

In 1892 a great step forward was taken 
by lengthening the course to four years ; in 
1896 the entrance conditions were restricted 
practically to candidates with degrees from 
a recognized college or scientific school. 



sion designed to result in the most compre- 
hensive and complete medical estalilishment 
in the world. A large tract in the Long- 
wood section, lying between Longwood 
Avenue and Francis Street, was secured, 
with room not only for the Medical School 
and its subsidiaries, but for a large group 
of hospitals that would be invaluable for the 
purposes of the institution, with the wide 
range of observation thus made possible. 
The present marble group of five buildings, 
costing with their equipment nearly five mil- 
lions ($4,950,000) was the result — made 




BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, SO EAST CONCORD STREET 



Then in 1899 the scope of the school was 
enormously extended by constituting a new 
faculty of medicine, consisting of the con- 
solidated faculties of the Medical, Dental 
and Veterinary Schools, with authority to 
administer the three respective degrees. 
The dean of the Medical School was made 
the dean of the new faculty and separate ad- 
ministrative Boards were constituted for the 
three schools. The Dental and Veterinary 
Schools thus became subsidiaries of the 
Medical School ; their specialties, recognized 
as branches of medical science, thereby 
achieving a new standing with enhanced 
dignity. 

With this advance came plans for expan- 



possible through gifts of one million, one 
hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars 
from John Pierpont Morgan and one mil- 
lion dollars from John D. Rockefeller, to- 
gether with other large subscriptions in 
addition to available funds of the Univer- 
sity. One of these subscriptions was of two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a 
laboratory of pathology and bacteriology in 
memory of Collis P. Huntington, given by 
his widow, who later founded the Collis P. 
Huntington Memorial Hospital for the 
treatment of cancer, adjacent to the school. 
The five buildings of the Medical School 
are devoted respectively to administration, 
anatomx' and histology, ])acteriology and 



'1"IIK HOOK OF ROSTOX 



293 



])athulug_\-. ph_\-siulugy ami phwsiulugical 
chemistry, pharmacology and hygiene. 

In more recent years various important 
contributions to medical science have come 
from investigations conducted I)y members 
of the faculty of the Harvard Medical 
School. Among these, Dr. Frank ]^)Urr Mal- 
lory has thrown new light upon the nature 
of whooping cough and the microbe which 
causes it ; Dr. William T. Councilman has 
made notable discoveries in relation to 



Results (if world-wide moment have come 
from the disco\eries made by the expedition 
sent to South America from the Harvard 
School of Tropical Aledicine — a subsidiary 
of the Harvard Medical School — in 1913, 
the vear the school was opened. Its object 
was to collect material f i:)r use in the instruc- 
tion of the students of the school, as well as 
to investigate certain forms of tropical dis- 
eases in that part of the world, particularly 
the malady known as I'crniga pcrm'iana, 




I1AK\ARD MEUICAL SCHOOL 2+U LONGVVOOU AVE., FENWAY 



l>ra:ctni; by II. Louis GUason 



smallpox; Dr. Otto Folin's work in organic 
cheiuistry has proved of great value; Dr. 
Walter B. Cannon has not only done work 
of exceeding importance in his studies of 
digestive functions, but his discoveries in re- 
lation to the adrenal gland and the effect of 
its secretions upon the circulation of the 
blood have had momentous results — show- 
ing, for instance, hcnv the ])romotion or re- 
tarding of the entrance of adrenal secre- 
tions into the blood through excitement of 
the emotions induces valor, rage, fear, ;uid 
other modifications of human action. 



which has afllictcd inhabitants of Peru since 
remote historical times and knig supposed 
to be an advanced stage of a disease called 
Oroya fever. The expedition, headed by 
Dr. Richard P. Strong, professor of tropical 
medicine at the Harvard ^ledical School, 
found twi) distinct diseases — the former 
due to a virus and the latter to a 
jirotozoan parasite of the red l)lood cor- 
puscles and endothelial cells, which proved 
to be a new genus. The expedition demon- 
strated a method of vaccination against ver- 
ruga peruviana. Other notable work of the 



294 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



expedition was in connectinn with the ulcer- 
ative disease called iita, long supposed a pre- 
historic form of syphilis or of leprosy, and 
later of lupus vulgaris. But the expedition 
found it due to a species of Leishmania. 

The Harvard Dental School, established 
in 1868, occupies a handsome new building 
on Longwood Avenue, adjoining the Medi- 
cal School. The first year of the three 
years' course is given in the Medical School 
in common with the medical students, be- 
ing identical with the course of the latter. 
With the second year the students pass over 
to the Dental School under the instruction 
of its professors. The Dental School In- 
firmary is a department of the Massachu- 
setts General Hospital. The dental students 
have the privilege of the museum, library 
and dissecting rooms of the Medical School. 

The Boston University School of Medi- 
cine was organized in 1873 on a basis of 
homoeopathic practice. Its course is for 
three years. In 1874, by act of the Legis- 
lature, the New England Eemale Medical 
College was united with this school. The 
school building, on East Concord Street, ad- 
joins the Homoeopathic Hospital, which 
alifords to the students good opportunities 
for observation and clinical work. Male 
students are also allowed to be present at 
surgical operations performed at the Boston 
City Hospital, near by. 

The Tufts College School of Medicine 
occupies, in common with the Tufts College 
Dental School, a large and convenient build- 
ing on Huntington Avenue at the corner of 
Bryant Street. The School of Medicine was 
organized in 1893 to meet a demand for the 
sound training of young men desiring to 
lie general practitioners in medicine and sur- 
gery. At the Harvard IMedical School the 
new conditions had resulted in a training 
which was too long and expensive for young 
men of limited means who desired to engage 
in general practice. As a rule its students 
aimed at s])ecialization ; all but a small pro- 
portinii came from the great cities, and it 
was in the cities that the specialists had 
their field. Hence the country districts, 
whose need was for the all-round doctor, 



were left uncared for. The two institu- 
tions are not at all competitive ; a most cor- 
dial relationship therefore exists Ijetween 
the two faculties. The regular course 
at Tufts is for three years; a pre- 
requisite for entrance is a year's academic 
training at some collegiate institution of 
recognized standing. At the very start the 
faculty represented an uncommonly able 
corps of instruction, numbering some of the 
foremost and most brilliant physicians and 
surgeons practicing in Boston, distinguished 
for their progressiveness. Although special- 
ization was not aimed at, particular atten- 
tion was given to certain branches upon 
which not so much stress had at that 
time been given at other institutions — 
particularly pathology, psychopathy and 
therapeutics. 

The Tufts College Dental School is the 
largest in the United States, and the third 
in point of age. It was organized in 1868 
as the Boston Dental College — its purpose 
"the advancement of dental art and instruc- 
tion" in it by means of lectures and clinical 
e.xercises. An excellent library and a mu- 
seum were soon established, together with 
an infirmary for the gratuitous treatment of 
poor persons, who were required to pay only 
for the gold and other materials used. At 
a1)out the same time the Tufts Medical 
School was established, the Dental College 
was taken over and a great impetus was 
thereby given to its development along the 
lines which have placed American dentistry 
at the head throughout the world. 

The Massachusetts Medical Society is the 
oldest State medical organization that has 
met continuously since its foundation. It 
was established in Novemlier, 1771, and 
was incorporated ten years later, its charter 
signed by Samuel Adams, president of the 
Senate, and John Hancock, governor. 
Through its authority to examine candi- 
dates as to their fitness and certify to the 
same, the Society has always exerted a pow- 
erful inlluence upon the practice of medi- 
cine and surgery in the Commonwealth. 
The first president was Dr. Edward Augus- 
tus Holvoke of Salem. It met at first in the 



THK BOOK OF BOSTON 



295 



Count V L'tiurtliiiu^c and afterwards in vari- 
ous other places, until the establishment of 
the Medical Library, since when it has met 
in the rooms of that institution. In 1789 
the Society was given authority l)y the Leg- 
islature "to point out and describe such a 
mode of metlical instruction as might be 
deemetl requisite for candidates previous to 
examination." In 1803 the societx' divided 
the Commonwealth into four medical dis- 
tricts: the Middle. Southern, Eastern and 
Western, which later became the basis for 
the e.xisting district medical societies. The 
society has issued many valuable publica- 
tions, dealing with various aspects of medi- 
cal and surgical practice. 



enal growth. It was founded in 1875 as the 
Boston Medical Library Association ; in 
1896 the word "association" was dropped 
from the title. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
was its first president. Beginning in two 
rooms on Plamilton Place, it accumulated 
four thousand, four hundred and eighty- 
eight volumes the first year. In 1877 it was 
incoriKirated. In 1878, when it jiurchased a 
building in Boylston Place, it had eight 
tlKiusand volumes. On J^i'iuary 12, 1891, it 
moved to its handsome new building on the 
Fenway, next door to the [Massachusetts 
Historical Societv, named the "Warren B. 
Potter Memorial ' in recognition of a hand- 
some l.)equest. Here the meinor\- of the 



■*»*». 



Ai^i^ 


^ R e. i 




% E e E 


Ifik 




CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL LOXGWOOD AVENUE, CORNER VILA STREET, FENWAY 



The Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medi- 
cal Society had its origin in the Homceo- 
pathic Fraternity, established in 1840 by 
physicians of that school who used to meet 
at the homes of members. In 1856 its mem- 
bers were incorporated as above. The prin- 
ciple of Samuel Hahnemann, "like cures 
like," first influenced medical ])ractice in Bos- 
ton in i8j;8, when Dr. Sanuiel Gregg of 
Med ford l)ecame a convert to homteopathv, 
followed soon after by Drs. Josiah Flagg of 
Boston, Charles Wild of Brookline, and C. 
M. Weld of Jamaica Plain. A Boston 
Homoeopathic Society meets in the IMedical 
College of Boston University. 

The Boston Medical Library, a compara- 
tively young institution, has had a ])henom- 



liljrary's first president is honored by the 
name of the stately reading-room, "Holmes 
Hall." The collections have again out- 
grown the ami)le quarters here provided and 
a large extension to the l)uilding has Ijeen 
])lanned. The library in 191 5 had grown 
to eighty-live thousantl, nine hundred and 
sixt\--three volumes and tifty-eight thou- 
sand and fortv-hve pamphlets. This 
growth is due to the fact that the library, 
being recognized as the natural centre for 
medical literature in Greater Boston, has 
absorbed twelve distinct collections from 
various institutions, including the medical 
works of Harvard University, the Boston 
.\then;eum, the Boston Public Library, the 
^\'altham Pulilic Librarv, and the medical 



296 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



libraries of the various medical schools. 
This principle of library specialization 
proves of enormous convenience to the med- 
ical profession, since information sources 
are now concentrated in one place. 

In the Forsyth Dental Infirmary for 
■Children, Boston has an institution unique 
of its kind; so nobly beneficent as to deserve 
■special attention here. Its founders had lived 
so quietly, their record in generous philan- 
thropic activities so modestly withheld from 
the public eye, that when the announcement 
of a magnificent charity involving a gift of 
more than two million dollars was made, it 
was difficult to obtain an answer to the uni- 
versal inquiry in the city where they had al- 
ways lived : "Who are the Forsyth broth- 
ers?" It appeared that one of the largest 
and most prosperous of local industries, the 
Boston Belting Company, had been devel- 
oped by the four brothers : James Bennett, 
George Henr}-, John Hamilton, and Thomas 
Alexander Forsyth — all of whom had re- 
garded the handsome fortunes their work 
had earned for them, primarily in the light 
of a trust for the public good. Seldom have 
four brothers been so affectionately united 
in good intent. The inception for this char- 
ity came from the first of these brothers : 
James Bennett Forsyth. One day, when in 
the dentist's chair, he remarked that he de- 
sired to leave a half million dollars for some 
public charity and asked what might be a 
worthy object. The dentist, an old friend, 
suggested a dental infirmary for children, 
and set forth the value of such an institu- 
tion so convincingly that Mr. Forsyth drew 
up a will to that end. This will was found 
unsigned. In the meanwhile (ieorge Henry 
Forsyth had also died, and the surviving 
brothers, their heirs, agreed not only to 
carry out the purpose of James Bennett 
Forsyth to the extent intended, but to am- 
plify it so generously that, as a memorial to 
both, they founded the Forsyth Dental 
Infirmary for Children with an endow- 
ment of two million dollars, besides the 
enormous sum, amounting to more than a 
million dollars, expended upon the erection 
-and equipment of a building that not only 



in its uncommon beauty stands a noble 
memorial nuinument, but in every respect is 
ideally suited to its purpose. T. P. R. Qra- 
ham was the architect. In its blending of 
utility and beauty, the interior is worthy of 
the classic exterior. All possible means for 
convenience, comfort, and appliances of the 
most advanced type, were carefully pro- 
vided for in the planning. The building and 
its contents are absolutely fireproof — even 
wooden furniture was made non-combus- 
tible. .Scrupulous care has been taken to 
obtain the utmost hygienic character; to as- 
sure enduringly up-to-date results, standard- 
ized equipment was used only where it 
would meet all possible requirements ; nearly 
everything was made according to carefully 
studied special designs. The architectural 
form gives remarkably complete expression 
to the main requirement of the infirmary : 
light — the exceptional window-spacing 
l)ringing the lofty room occupying the en- 
tire second story almost under outdoor con- 
ditions. All children of Greater Boston, 
either poor or moderately circumstanced, 
are eligible to free treatment here by a corps 
of trained dentists, sixty-four working at a 
time at as many chairs, while there is room 
for a second row of forty-four chairs to 
meet growing demands. 

For the sake of the scrupulous cleanliness 
demanded, the interior is specially con- 
structed to that end : all corners are curved, 
and glazed tile is extensively used in sur- 
faces of walls and ceiling. This tile work, 
beautifully designed, includes the art of the 
Delft and Moravian, and the local Grueby 
and Paul Revere, potteries. The beautiful 
children's waiting-room in the basement has 
mural decorations in richly colored tiles rep- 
resenting charming legends and fairy tales. 
Here in the basement is a sterilizing equip- 
ment where thousands of iniplements are 
treated at a time, every new patient being 
provided with a complete tray of fresh in- 
struments. On the first floor are a room 
for popular lectures on dental hygiene; a 
Founders' Room with memorials of the 
Forsyth family; a museum and laboratory 
for dental hygiene; rooms for extracting 



TUK I500K OF BOSTON 



297 



and aiicxsthesia, the amphitheatre (upper 
part), wards for patients, and the depart- 
ment for treating diseases of the ear and 
throat, so closely related to dental hygiene. 

Connected with the Infirmary is a Post- 
graduate School of Orthodontia. This im- 
portant scientific specialty of dentistry is 
here taught under conditions nowhere else 
so favorable. Several new and radical ideas 
in this field have been introduced. There is 



having been demonstrated that some of the 
most serious bodily ills were due to diseases 
of the teeth and associated parts. Dental 
hygiene had thus become a most important 
feature of the schocil sxstem ; (ipportunely 
this institution has provided for its com- 
prehensive treatment facilities such as yet 
exist in no other community. In 1911-1912 
the Boston Board of Health hatl found that 
out of one hundred and eiphteen thousand, 




tORSVTH Dt.NTAL INFIRMARY FOR CHILDREN, 140 FENWAY 



a full academic year of instruction and 
work. The broad curriculum includes all 
correlative subjects while remaining inten- 
sive in each branch, and always bearing 
upon the bodily welfare of the child. The 
aim is to educate specialists and teachers; 
the science is taught eclectically. 

The foundation of the Forsyth Infirmary 
came appropriately at a time when the j)ublic 
had only just been made aware of the essen- 
tial relationship between dental hygiene and 
the general health of the human l)eing, it 



seven hundred and eighty-one Boston school 
children, fift}--one thousand, three hundred 
and forty had defective teeth, while nearly 
as many more suffered fnim related 
trouljles. In the about equal number in the 
remaining comnnmities of Cireater Boston 
similar conditions probal)h' obtain. Good 
teeth mean good health, hence the in- 
fluence of this institution upon future gener- 
ations in a great metropolitan community is 
incalculable, and its founders h;i\e the city's 
unalloyed gratitude. 



2Q8 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



HUGH CABOT, M.D. 

Hugh Cabot was l>orn at Beverly Farms, 
August 1 1, 1872. He attended the Roxbury 
Latin School and afterwards entered Har- 




DR. HUGH CABOT 



vard College, graduating in the academic 
course in 1894, and obtaining the M.D. de- 
gree in 1898. He was house surgeon at the 
Massachusetts General Hospital for one year 
after graduating, and then liegan the prac- 
tice of surgery. He is at present assistant 
Professor of Surgery at the Harvard Medi- 
cal School and chief of a service at the Mas- 
sachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Cabot's 
ancestors canie from the Isle of Jersey, the 
American branch Ijeing founded in New 
England in the seventeenth centur_\-. He is 
a member of the St. Botolph Club, the Papy- 
rus Cluli, the Union Boat Club, the Hasty 
Pudding Club and the Delta Kappa Epsilon 
fraternity. He is a director of the Journal 
Newspaper Co., and trustee and member of 
the executive committee of the New Ene;- 
land Baptist Hospital. \Miile most active 
in his work. Dr. Cabot finds time for vari- 
ous outdoor sports, of which he is very fond. 



CONRAD WESSELHOEFT, M.D. 

Dr. Conrad Wesselhoeft, author and 
writer on medical subjects, was born in 
Cambridge, Mass., in 1884. His prepara- 
tory education was received at Brown & 
Nichols School and at Haubinda, Germany. 
He took the classical course at Harvard 
University, and entering the Harvard Med- 
ical School obtained the M.D. degree upon 
graduation in 191 1. He is attending physi- 
cian at the West Department of the Massa- 
chusetts Homeopathic Hospital ; Editor of 
the New England Medical Gazette and In- 
structor in Pharmacology at the Boston 
University Medical School. Dr. Wessel- 
hoeft is a member of the Harvard Club of 
Boston, the .-Esculapian Club of Boston, the 
Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical So- 
ciety and the American Institute of Home- 
opathy, and is an Associate in Research of 
the Evans Memorial. In addition to his 
medical work. Dr. Wesselhoeft has con- 
tributed to numerous medical journals and 
is the author of "History of Digitalis Ther- 
apy in Heart Disease," "A Study of the 
Action of Ouim'ne in ]\Ialaria," "History 
of Malaria and Quinine," "The Standardi- 
zation of Digitalis" antl "The Therapeu- 
tics of Scarlet Fever." He resides at 535 
Beacon Street. 



The Arnold Arboretum has enriched in- 
calculably the horticultural resources of the 
United States by the introduction of new 
varieties and species of trees and shrubs. 

CHARLES M. GREEN, M.D. 
Dr. Charles M. Green, obstetrician and 
gynecologist, was born in Med ford, Massa- 
chusetts, December 18, 1850. He is of old 
New England ancestry, and his medical 
education was obtained at Harvard. He has 
served as professor in the Harvard Medical 
School for many years, in the hospitals of 
Boston, and is a member of many medical, 
historical, and patriotic societies. He served 
five years on the School Committee of Bos- 
ton, and for over thirty-four years in the 
Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. He re- 
sides at 78 Marlborough Street. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



->oo 



FRANK ELLSWORTH ALLARD, MA). 

Dr. PTank I'JlswDrtli Allard. nie(jical di- 
rector of the Boston Mutual Lite Insurance 
Company, was born in Wheelock. \'t.. 




DR. FR,\XK ELLSWORTH ,\LL,\RD 

Marcli 14, 1S62. Since his graduation froni 
Dartmouth College in 1885, and before and 
since obtaining his ALD. degree from the 
Boston L'niversity School of Medicine, Dr. 
Allard has filled many positions of impor- 
tance in the educational field, has lectured 
extensively and has prepared many articles 
on preventative medicine and public health 
subjects. He was principal of the Boston 
Farm School 1S85-9: principal of the 
Maiden Evening School, 1889-97: he was 
house surgeon of the Massachusetts Home- 
opathic Dispensary for one year and superin- 
tendent of the Chardon Street Dispensary 
1892-8. He was instructor in Physiology 
at the Boston E^niversity School of !Medi- 
cine for 19 12 and is now also lecturer at the 
same institutimi on Physical Economics. 
Dr. Allard has been medical director of the 
Boston Mutual Life Insurance Compan_\- 
since 188S and is examining surgeon of the 
Casualty Companx- of America. Fie is past 
president of the American Association of 



Medical E.xaminers and holds membership 
in the Massachusetts Society of Examining 
Physicians, Boston Homeopathic ^Medical 
Society, Massachusetts Homeopathic ^ledi- 
cal Societ\', American Institute of Hmne- 
(ipathy. Eta Eta Chapter, Sigma Chi, Bos- 
ton City and Art Clubs. Dr. Allard was 
married in Norwich, \'t., May 15, 1888, 
to Ada Eliza Booth, and they have one 
daughter, Beatrice Allard, A.B., Mt. Hol- 
voke College, 1915. Dr. .Mlard's success in 
his profession is the result of close ap- 
plication and hard work. He was left an 
orphan when two years old, after which he 
lived with his grandparents until he was 
eighteen years old, working on the farm 
and event ualh' earning his way through high 
school anil college. His offices are at yy 
Kilby Street and 419 Box'lston Street. 



No city in America can excel Boston 
in educational facilities. It has produced 
])hysicians of world-wide celel)rit}-, and the 
high re])Utation of its hos])itals, which are 
unsurjiassed in e(|uii)ment and management, 
is due to the excellence of the medical statf, 
which include physicians of international 
repute. 

SAMUEL JASON M INTER, ^l.D. 
Dr. Samuel J. ]\Ii.xter was born in Hard- 
wick, Mass., in 1855, and after graduating 
from the Alassachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nolog}' and Harvard Medical School, took 
uj) the ])ractice of medicine in 1879. He 
has Ijeen assistant in anatomy, assistant 
demonstrator, instructor in surgery, and 
assistant in operative snrger}- at Harvaril, 
and has Ijeen lecturer at the same institution 
since 1903. Fie is consulting surgeon at 
the ^Massachusetts General Hospital and the 
Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear In- 
firmary. He is a Fellow of the American 
Surgical Association, American Academv 
of Arts and Sciences, antl memlier of the 
American Medical Association, ]Massachu- 
setts Medical Society and the Societe In- 
ternationale de Chirurgie, Paris, France. 
Dr. Mixter's office is at 180 Marlborough 
Street, Boston. 



300 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



MYRON L. CHAMBERLAIN, M.D. 




UK. M. L. CHAMUl-RLAIN' 



Dr. M. L. Chamberlain was born in 
Greenwich, Mass., on September 22, 1844. 
He fitted for college at New Salem Acad- 



emy, but abandoned a prospective Harvard 
College education to enlist as a recruit to 
the loth Massachusetts regiment, but was 



'I'lli: 15()()K OF BOSTON 



301 



discharged liecause of ill luvilth in 1S62. 
After the recovery of his health he began 
to study medicine and attended tlie Berk- 
shire Medical College, the Medical Depart- 
ment of the University of Maryland, and 
the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, from 
which he was graduated in 1867. On the 
6th of February, 1865, after an examination 
at the State House I)y Surgeon-General 
Dale, Surgeons McClaren and Townsend, 
C. A. Dana, assistant Secretary of War, ap- 
pointed Mr. Chamberlain a medical cadet 
in the regular army. He received an honor- 
able discharge in the spring of 1S66, having 
been retained in service until all other cadets 
had been tlischarged, and having been sta- 
tioned at the Dale General Hospital, Worces- 
ter, and the Hicks General Hospital, Balti- 
more, yU\. Dr. Chamberlain came to Bos- 
ton in 1878, after seven years of practice in 
Southbridge, Mass., and two years of study 
and travel abroad, and, without prestige and 
almost without friends, quickly accjuired, 
and still holds, one of the most desirable 
practices in the city. He comes of an illus- 
trious ancestry. Fie is descended in the 
sixth generation from Lieut. Nathaniel Fel- 
ton, "The Patriarch of Old Salem," who 
came from England in 1633, and who was 
the direct ancestor of the late President Fel- 
ton of Harvard College, and his wife, Mary 
Skelton, the daughter of Rev. Samuel Skel- 
ton, the first minister of the first church of 
Salem, wh(T came from England on the sec- 
ond voyage of the "Mayflower" in 162Q, 
having left his native country because of 
persecution inv his non-cunfiirniilw l'"rancis 
Higginson accompanied him and l)ecanie 
teacher in the church. The Colonial author- 
ities granted Rev. ]\Ir. Skelton for his sacri- 
fices two hundred acres of land, on which 
now stands Danversport. Dr. Chamber- 
lain's great-grandmother, widow Katherine 
Deland, was the first jiublic school 
teacher in the north precinct of Salem, and 
the Peabody Historical Society recently 
erected a granite and bnmze memorial t(.) 
Irt ;iu(l to mark the site of the house in 
which was held the school. He is also the 



sixth generation froi 



hn Proctor of 



Salem, the witchcraft martyr. The old 
house of Nathaniel Felton still stands in 
Peabody, formerly a part of Salem, and has 
been occupied by a Nathaniel Felton in 
direct descent, continuously, until two years 
ago, when the last Nathaniel Felton died, 
and it is still the home of the latter's sister, 
Mrs. Gould. (Jther descendants of Na- 
thaniel Felton went, as original .settlers, to 
New Salem, Mass., and were instrumental 
\\ith others in obtaining financial assistance 
from the State to build the New Salem 
Acadeni}-, the first to receive State aid, and 
which is still flourishing. It has been the 
alma mater of very many Chaml)erlains and 
Feltons from its first session down to the 
present day. Dr. Chaml)erlain comes of a 
medical family. His father. Dr. Levi 
Chamberlain, practiced medicine in Massa- 
chusetts forty years; a brother. Dr. George 
Felton Chamlierlain, practiced forty-seven 
years, and another br(jther. Dr. C}rus Na- 
thaniel Chamberlain, practiced forty-eight 
years, four of which were spent as Surgeon, 
U. S. v., in the Civil War; the latter was 
selected by the General Court of Massachu- 
setts from all the surgeons who went to the 
war from Massachusetts, to build and take 
charge of the Dale General Hospital at 
Worcester, Mass., in 1865. This serves to 
show Dr. Chamljerlain's sturdy New Eng- 
land ancestors, but the family history is 
traced a long time back. A memlier of the 
titled family, de Tankerville, influential then 
and now, and having large estates down to 
the present time in the valley of the Loire, 
in France, went to England as an ofticer at 
the time of the Norman Conquest and was 
made chamberlain to the king. He ailopted 
Chamberlain as a family name, and his de- 
scendants continued its use thereafter. 

Dr. Chamberlain is a member of the Mas- 
sachusetts ^Medical Society, the Boston Med- 
ical Library ;uid the American Medical 
Association. He has been an occasional 
contributor t(_) medical jiublications and is 
the originator of a new idea in surgerv, and 
an apparatus to make it eft'ective, which 
have proved their worth b)- the sa\ing of 
several human lives. 



302 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



GEORGE HAMLIN WASHBURN, M.D. 

Dr. George H. Washburn was born May 
2, i860, in Constantinople, Turkey, the son 
of George and Henrietta Loraine (Hamlin) 




DR. GEORGE H. W.ISHBURN 



Washburn. The father was a clergyman 
who was a recognized authority upoti ques- 
tions connected with the politics of South- 
eastern Europe, and was decorated with the 
Order of St. Andrew by Prince Alexander 
of Bulgaria and the Order of Civil Merit by 
Prince Ferdinand. 

Dr. Washlmrn lived abroad the greater 
part of his time up to 1878 and received his 
preparatory education at Robert College, 
Constantinople. Returning to this country 
he entered Amherst College and graduated 
A.B. in 1882. Harvard conferred the M.D. 
degree upon him in 1886, since which time 
he has practiced in Boston. He is professor 
emeritus of obstetrics at Tufts College Med- 
ical School, late visiting gynecologist to St. 
Elizabeth's Hospital and consulting surgeon, 
Free Hospital for Women. Dr. Washburn 
is a member of the American Medical Asso- 
ciation, the Massachusetts Medical Society, 
the Boston Obstetrical Society, of which he 



was formerl}' president, the Delta Kappa 
Epsilon Fraternity and the Congregational 
and University Clubs. Dr. Washburn was 
married September 22, 1887, to Anna M. 
Hoyt, of Auburn, N. Y., the union bringing 
four children, Mrs. Anna Loraine Hall, of 
New York; George Edward Washburn, of 
Proctor, \'t. ; Arthur H. Washburn, a 
teacher at Robert College, Constantinople, 
(jf which his grandfather was president; and 
Alfred H. Washburn, who just graduated 
from Amherst College. He resides at 377 
Marlborough Street and has a summer home 
at Manchester, Mass. 



There is no citv in the entire country 
better equijiped for expansion than Boston. 

SAMUEL A. KIMBALL, M.D. 

Dr. Samuel A. Kimball was born August 
28, 1857. in Bath, Alaine. He graduated 
from Phillips (Andover) Academy, 1874; 
Yale College, 1879; 
Harvard Medical 1 
School, 1882, and 
Boston Lhiiversity | 
School of Medicine 
in 1883. He began 
practice in Mrl- 
rose, Mass., in 
1883, but removed 
to Boston in iSSn, 
and has since prac- 
ticed here continu- 
ously. Dr. Kim- 
ball is descended | 
from Richard Kim- 
ball, who came to 
this country in 
1634. He is a member of the Massa- 
chusetts Homeopathic Medical Society, the 
International Hahnemanian Association, the 
Society of Homeopathicians and the Delta 
Kappa Epsilon Society. He resides at 229 
Newbury Street. He was married October 
17, 1883, to Belle C. Trowbridge of Port- 
land, Maine. There are two children, John 
H., born in Melrose May 6, 1886, and 
Joseph S., l)orn in Boston May 20, 1889. 




DR. SAMUEL A. KIMBALL 



THE ROOK OF BOSTON 



M):^ 




DR. SETH F. ARNOLD 



SETH FENELON ARNOLD, M.D. 

Dr. Seth F. Arnold was born in Wcstinin- 
.ster, Vt., Decemljer 21. 1878. The family 
is of English origin, the American branch 

being established 
in 1640, at Had- 
dani. Conn., the 
founder being (Jiie 
of twenty to take a 
grant of land from 
the King of Eng- 
land. Dr. .\rnold 
was educated at the 
Kimball U n i o n 
Acailemy, Meriden, 
X. H., class of 
] 896 ; Vermont 
Academy, Saxton's 
River, \'t., class of 
1899, and after- 
wartls attended the 
Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, 
Ind., for nearly three years, with the class 
of 1903. He was graduated from Tufts l"ol- 
lege Medical School in 1908 and has since 
practiced in Boston. He was a member of 
the Boston City Committee 1906-7, the Bos- 
ton City Council 1908-9, and of the Massa- 
chusetts House of Representatives in 1910. 
Dr. Arnold is a member of the Sons of the 
American Revolution, American Micro- 
scopic Society, Mercantile Library Associa- 
tion, Sigma Nu and Phi Chi Fraternities, 
the Massachusetts Repuljlican Club and the 
Lincoln Club of Boston. His address is 
92 Huntington Avenue. 

WHJTA^r :\IERRITT CONANT, :\LD. 

Dr. William M. Conant, one of the well- 
known surgeons of the city, was born Jan- 
uary 5, 1856, in North Attleboro, Mass., 
the son of Ira M. and Mary F. (Bassett) 
Conant. His preliminary education was at 
the Bridgewater (Mass.) Academy, Phil- 
lips (Andoverj Academy, and Adams 
Academy, Ouincy, Massachusetts. He en- 
tered Harvard College for the classical 
course and graduated A.B. in 1879, ^"'^l ^^''^^ 
<iwarded the M.D. degree by the Harvard 
Medical School in 1884, after he had been 



a house officer for one \'ear and a half at 
the [Massachusetts (leneral Hospital. Dr. 
Conant has practiced in Bost(jn since 1885. 
He is professor of clinical surgery at Tufts 
Aledical School and consulting surgeon to 
the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is 
a member of the American ^Medical Associa- 
tion, the American College of Surgeons, the 
Association of Military Surgeons of the 
United States, the Massachusetts Medical 
Societ^', the American Society of Anato- 
mists antl the Society of Medical Improve- 
ment and Medical Sciences. He is a mem- 
ber of the Beacon Society, the Harvard 
Clul) of Boston and New York, the Country 
Club of Brookline, Algonquin Club, and 
Army antl Navy Club oi Washington, also 
the Boston Athletic Association. Dr. 
Conant was married in Boston, November 
12, 1884, to r\lary A. Bennett. He is a Re- 
publican in p(ilitics, and a member of the 
Episcopalian Church. He resides at 486 
Commonwealth .Avenue. 



The Home for Aged Men on Spring- 
field Street was organized in 1861. Its pur- 
pose is to proxidc a home for and assist 
respectable, aged and indigent men. 

E\'ERETT JONES, M.B., M.D. 

Dr. Everett Jones was born in Corinna, 
Maine, and was educated at Boston and 
Harvard Universities, the former institu- 
tion conferring the Bachelor of Medicine 
degree upon him in 1897. For the past ten 
years he has specialized in diseases of the 
nose, throat and ear. Dr. Jones is on the 
staff' of the Massachusetts Hom(xr)pathic 
Hospital and is a member of the American 
Medical Association, Massachusetts Medi- 
cal Society, Massachusetts Homoeopathic 
Medical Society, The American Institute 
of Homoeopathy, American Homoeopathic 
Ophthalmological, Otological and Laryn- 
gological Association, Massachusetts Surgi- 
cal and Gynecological Society, and the 
Tedesco Country Clul) of Swampscott. His 
office is at 419 Boylston Street, and he re- 
sides at 1638 Beacon Street. His summer 
residence is at Marblehead. 



304 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




GEORGE BURGESS MAGRATH, M.D. 
Dr. George B. Magrath, medical exam- 
iner for Suffolk County, was born in Jack- 
son, Mich., October 2, 1870. After a 

thorough prepara- 
tory education he 
graduated A.B. 
from Harvard in 
1894 and M.D. in 
1898. He was 
House Officer in 
the pathological ser- 
vice at the Boston 
City Hospital in 
1898, assistant in 
pathology at the 
same institution 
from 1895-1915, 
and assistant in hy- 
giene 1905-7. He 
was pathologist to 
and Carney Hospi- 



DR. GEORGE B. MAGRATH 

Long Island (Boston) 



tals from 1898 to 1905 and assistant to the 
secretary of the Massachusetts Board of 
Health in 1905-7. Dr. Magrath has lieen 
instructor in legal medicine at the Harvard 
Medical School since 1907. He is a member 
of the American Medical Association, the 
Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society, of 
which he was formerly president, the Suf- 
folk District Medical Society, the St. Bo- 
tolph Club, Union Boat Club and Harvard 
Club of Boston. Dr. Magrath has been a 
frequent contributor to medical journals and 
is the author of "Studies in Pathology and 
Etiologv of Variola and of Vaccinia." 



C. DELETANG EBANN, M.D. 

Dr. C. Deletang Ebann, who specializes 
in stomach troubles and rheumatism, was 
born at Paris, France, and was educated at 
the leading institutions of learning abroad 
and in the LTnited States. He came to 
America nearly forty-five years ago and 
studied medicine at Tufts College, which 
conferred the M.D. degree upon him. He 
has practiced in Boston successfully for 
twenty-five years, with offices at 25 IMarl- 
borough Street. 



HELMUTH ULRICH, M.D. 

Dr. Helmuth LHrich, who is Research As- 
sociate in Pathology and Librarian at the 
Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Re- 
search and Preven- 
tive Medicine, con- 
nected with the 
M a s s a c h u setts 
Homeopathic Hos- 
pital, was born Oc- 
tober 31, 1882, ir 
Arras, Germany, 
and obtained his 
preparatory educa- 
tion at the Rochlitz 
Seminary, Ger- 
many. LTpon com- 
ing to America he 
became a special 
student at Harvard 
College and during 
1906-7 studied at the LTniversity of Penn- 
sylvania Medical School. He obtained the 
M.D. degree from the Boston University 
Medical School upon graduation in 191 1. 
He was House physician at the Ivletropolitan 
Hospital, New York, 1911-12, and has been 
lecturer in Pathology at the Boston Univer- 
sity School of Medicine since 1913. Dr. 
Ulrich took a post-graduate course in Pa- 
thology at the Friedrichshaien Krankenhaus, 
Berlin, in 1914. He is a member of the 
Alpha Sigma Fraternity and the Boston 
Medical Library. His offices are at 1474 
Commonwealth Avenue. 




DK. HELMUTH ULRICH 




CRYSTAL LAKE, WAKEFIELD. A PRETTY SPOT ON 
THE BAY STATE STREET RAILWAY 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON' 



M^> 



WILLIAM PHILLIPS GRAVES, M.D. 

Dr. William Phillijjs Graves was Ixirn in 
Andover, Mass., January 29, 1870, the S(jn 
of William Blair and Luranah Hodges 




DR. WILLIAM P. GRAVES 



( Copeland ) Graves. The immediate mem- 
l)ers of Dr. Graves' family are noted among 
New England's professional men. The 
father, William Blair Graves, was for many 
years professor of natural sciences at 
Phillips Academy, Andover, instructor in 
mathematics at Amherst and professor of 
mathematics and civil engineering at the 
Massachusetts Agricultural College, while 
the brother, Llenry Solon Graves, was for- 
merly professor of forestry and director of 
the Yale Forest School and is Chief Forester 
of the L^nited States. Dr. Graves was 
educated at I'hillii)S Academy, Andover, 
graduating with the class of 18S7. He took 
the clas.sical course at Yale and received 
the A.B. degree in 1891. Lie afterwards 
entered the Llarvard ^Medical School, receiv- 
ing the M.D. degree in 1899. Dr. Graves 
was a teacher in the Hill School, Pottstown, 
Pa., for four years previous to studying 
medicine. 1 le began practice in Iloston in 
1900, and has since filled many iinpjrlant 



positions in the hospitals and colleges of the 
cit\-. He was chosen surgeon-in-chief of 
the Free Llospital for Women in 1907; pro- 
fessor of gxnecology at the Harvard Med- 
ical School in 191 1, and is constilting physi- 
cian for Boston Lying-in Hospital. Fie is a 
member of the American Medical Associa- 
tion, American Association for Cancer Re- 
search, the Massachusetts Medical Societw 
American (iynecological Society, the Skull 
and Bones, of Yale, St. Botolph, Flarvard, 
Tennis and Racquet, Country and Boston 
Athletic Clul)s. He was married October 
10, 1900, to Alice M. Chase of Boston. His 
address is J44 Marlborough Street. Dr. 
Graves is author of "C,raves' Gynecology," 
a textbook published in 1916. 

HOWARD W. NOW'ELL, M.D. 

Dr. Howard \\'. Nowell, who has de- 
voted much time to pathological research, 
\\as born in Merrimacport, Mass., May 16, 
1872. He w a s 
graduated fro m 
Lyndon (Vt.) Col- 
lege, and the fol- 
lowing year took a 
course at the Mas- 
sachusetts College 
of Pharmacy. He 
studied medicine at 
Boston University, 
from which he was „^ „^„.^,^„ „, ^„,,.^^^ 
graduated in 19 11. 

Dr. Nowell was Instructor of Pathology 
at Boston L^niversity School of Medicine 
1911-13, and professor at the same in- 
stitution i9i_:;-i5. Fie was Pathologist 
at the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hos- 
])ital 1911-13 and Special Pathologist for 
the Evans Memorial for Preventive Aledi- 
cine antl Clinical Research. In 1913 he puli- 
lished a report of research work on cancer. 
He is a meml)er of the Boston City Club, 
the ^Masonic Fraternity, the I. O. O. F., 
American Institute of Homeopathy, Massa- 
chusetts Surgical and Gynecological Societ\-, 
Massachusetts Homeo])athic ]\Iedical So- 
ciety and the Boston Medical Society. He 
resides at 535 Beacon Street. 





DR. ELIZA T. RANSOM 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON' 



,^07 



ELIZA TAYLOR RANSO^L ^^LD. 



Dr. Eliza Taylor Ransom, specialist in 
mental and nervous diseases for many years, 
was the first jihysician in the United States 
to estalilish a Twilight Sleep Maternity Hos- 
])ital devoted solely to testing out this method 
of Dammerschlaf in Aiuerica. Dr. Ransom 
was born in Ontario, Canada. She was edu- 
cated in the New York State public schools 
and is a graduate of the Boston University 
ScIkjoI of ^Medicine, post graduate of Johns 
Hopkins ^ledical School, New York Post- 
Graduate School, the Polyclinic, Harvard 
and the Neurological and Pathological Insti- 
tute of New Ycjrk. Her medical degree was 
conferred 1)\- lloston L'niversit\' in 1900. Dr. 
Ransom began practice in 1902, at ^y;^ Com- 
monwealth Avenue, Boston. She was first 
vice-president of the Homeopathic Medical 
Society in 1903 and 1907, and is at present 
medical examiner for the Equitable Insur- 
ance Co., the Employers Liability Corpora- 
tion and Jordan, Marsh Co. 

Dr. Ransom began life as a teacher in a 
country school in northern New York, at 
$3.00 per week. Later, after graduating 
from the Oswego Normal School, she taught 
in the town of Pepperell and Westboro, as 
Principal of the Grammar School and was 
also instructor in the Lyman School for 
Boys. After teaching in public schools of 
Boston and Brookline, she relinquished that 
\\i irk for the study of medicine and later she 



became lecturer in the chair of Histokjgv at 
the Boston L'niversity ]\Iedical School, which 
she held for several years. She is a mem- 
ber of the Copley Society, Women's I'oliti- 
cal Equality Union, National Suffrage As- 
sociation, Women's City Clul), Canadian 
Club, Women's Municipal League, Twen- 
tieth Century Medical Clul), Massachusetts 
Homeopathic Medical Association, the New 
England Twilight Association and the Wo- 
men's National Association. She is the 
mother of two beautiful daughters, hence 
her interest in the recent highlv scientific 
and humane delivery of the coming genera- 
tions. The Twilight Sleep Maternitv Hos- 
pital, which Dr. Ransom conducts at 197 
Bay State Road, is a thoroughly equipped 
mo(lern maternity institution. In the treat- 
ment of cases by the Freiberg method. Dr. 
Ransom has been highly successful and is 
considered buth locally and' at large by the 
profession and by the laity as a pioneer as 
well as a jiroficient and persistent demon- 
strator of the best method }-et extant for 
the deliverance of the race, presenting as is 
claimed by its atlherents, the method above 
all others for reducing the present high 
death rate of infants at birth. It eliminates 
birth palsies responsible for many of our 
crippled and deformed children, and renders 
to feminine humanity a service incompa- 
rable and yet unapproached Ijy any other 
known method. 



308 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



A. WILLIAM REGGIO, M.D. 

Dr. A. William Reggio, who has for the 
past four years specialized in surgery, is one 
of the younger practitioners of the city. 




DR. A. WILLIAM REGGIO 



Dr. Reggio was born in Germany in 1886, 
the son of Andre C. Reggio, trustee of the 
Carney estate, and grandson of Nicholas 
Reggio, who was an old Boston merchant, 
and at different times United States Consul 
to Smyrna, Turkey and Italy. Dr. Reggio 
received his preparatory education in Eng- 
land, Germany and Switzerland, and upon 
his return to Boston finished at the Volk- 
mann School, whence he entered Harvard 
University for the classical course, and 
graduated in 1908. He then matriculated 
at the Harvard Medical School and was 
awarded the M.D. degree in 1912. He also 
graduated from the Massachusetts Hospital 
in 1 91 4, and at the present time is a gradu- 
ate assistant at the same institution. He is a 
member of the Tennis and Racquet, Har- 
vard (Boston and New York) and ^Escula- 
pian Clubs, the Harvard Musical Associa- 
tion, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the 
American Medical Association and the Bos- 
ton Medical Librarv Association. Dr. 



Reggio was married May 12, 1914, to 
Marian Shaw, daughter of Charles T. Lov- 
ering. His office is at 40 Fairfield Street, 
Boston. 

GEORGE S. C. BADGER, M.D. 
Dr. George S. C. Badger was born in 
Boston, May 31, 1870. His preparatory edu- 
cation was received at the Boston Latin 
School. Yale conferred the A.B. degree 
upon him in 1892 and the A.M. in 1894. 
Entering Harvard Medical School, he grad- 
uated in 1897, cum laude, with the M.D. de- 
gree. He began the practice of medicine in 
Brookline, afterwards removing to Boston, 
and now resides at 48 Hereford Street. Dr. 
Badger is Instructor in Medicine at the 
Harvard Medical School, Visiting Physician 
to Out-patients of the Massachusetts Gen- 
eral Hospital, Physician to the New Eng- 
land Baptist Hospital and a Member of the 
Advisory Committee on School Hygiene of 
the Boston Public Schools. He holds mem- 
bership in the Yale Club of Boston, Har- 
vard Club of Boston, Graduates Club of 
New Haven, American Medical Associa- 
tion and the Massachusetts Medical Society. 
He was married June 15, 1900. to Grace 




DR. GEORGE S. C. BADGER 



M. Spear of Cincinnati and they have two 
children, Sherwin Campbell Badger, born 
August 29, 1901, and Virginia Badger, 
born February 15, 191 1. Dr. Badger's 
summer home is in Cohasset. 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 




Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER XVIII 



BOSTON'S WOOL TRADE 

A World Leader in this Industry — A Trade Fortunate in Attracting the Most 

Energetic and Reliable Merchants 
By Henry A. Kidder 




fi^ ROM the earliest times, Bos- 
ton stands forth jire-emi- 
nently as the leading wool 
market of the country. 
Amid all the changes 
wrought in financial and 
commercial circles, the shifting centres of 
industrial productii:)n, rmd the niarveluus 
growth of the West and South, no other city 
or communit}- has been able to wrest su- 
premacy from Boston's wool trade. Deter- 
mined efforts have been made from time to 
time, notably by New York and Chicago, 
to tlivert the business so successfully and 
profitably carried on here, liut without suc- 
cess. Boston still magnificently leads in 
1)oth the volume of wool sold and its value 
when expressed in terms of money. With 
the exception of London, l)efore the war, it 
is the most important wool market in the 
^\■orld, and through all the changing years 
has maintained its relative control of both 
the handling of the domestic clip and the im- 
])ortation of foreign wools necessary to make 
up the deficiency where the domestic supj)ly 
falls shiirt. It is possil>le that even after the 
war it ma}- pass London in the race for 
world supremacy. 

Years ago, a shrewd observer saitl of the 
Boston market : "There is no other wool 
market in the world where a man can see 
so much wool in a day as he can in Boston. 
There is no other wool market in the world 
where a man can buy so much wool in a 
<lay without boosting the price as he can in 
Boston. In this market, which sometimes 



handles four hundred million pounds of 
wool, or one hundred million pounds more 
than the entire [production of this country, 
a man can purchase thirty million to fifty 
million pounds in a da\' or two, during the 
wool season, and it will scarcely cause a 
ripple. Yet if he were to go into the 
London auctions, where in the aggregate 
as much wool is handled as here, it is doubt- 
ful if he cotdd buv five hundred thousand 
pounds in a da\' without biilding up the price 
at least a half-penny." 

More than a centnrv ago, Alexander 
Hamilton, writing of the manufactures of 
New England, called attention to the fact 
that it was a "vast scene of household manu- 
facturing," and that the greater part of the 
men in these communities were clothed with 
the product of hand looms of New England 
housewives. Erom their own farms came 
the wool which the women spun into yarn 
and wove into cloth to supplv the needs of 
their "men folks." Homespun was then 
universally worn by all but the wealthy. 
The spinning wheel and the hand loom were 
then as common in the homes of the well- 
to-do as the i)iano and the sewing machine 
are today. Hamilton was the first public 
man tc; advocate the encouragement and pro- 
tecticjn of the domestic manufacturers of 
wool, but it is doubtful if even his prophetic 
soul could have foreseen the extent to which 
the industry was destined to be developed in 
later years, or its importance in furnishing 
employment to the working people, or as a 
source of wealth to the communitv. 



310 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Then, all the wool used in New England 
was grown on her hills, but wool growing 
has long ceased to Ije a prominent feature of 
her industries, though, for a brief period 
during and immediately following the Civil 
War, considerable wool was raised in North- 
ern New England, the high prices then pre- 
vailing making the business profitable. 
While the centre of wool production has 
moved West, and for manv ^ears has been 
beyond the Mississippi River, the control of 
its distribution has remained in the hands of 
Boston's merchants, while New England 
still maintains its supremacy in the business 
of wool manufacture. The question is often 
asked: "Whence this preeminence of the 
city in the wool trade?" and the answer is 
not long in coming nor the reason difficult to 
find. New England was the birthplace of 
the wool manufacturing industry in this 
country, and still dominates the industry. 
Ample water power and plenty of skilled 
labor were important factors in this de- 
velopment, and dotted all over the six states 
are to be found communities of which the 
centre is the woollen mill. It was but the 
extension of the idea of home production 
which Hamilton found so attractive. Mas- 
sachusetts, especially, has been i^rominent in 
the industry, and though other states and 
other sections have entered into wool manu- 
facturing with much energy, the Bay State 
is still the greatest wool manufacturing state 
in the Union. 

In the growth of this great industry, Bos- 
ton men and Boston capital have ever played 
an active and increasingly important part. 
What more natural than that the city from 
which the industry was managed and largely 
financed should also control the marketing 
and the distribution of the raw material. 
According to the last Federal census, there 
were nine hundred and eighty-five establish- 
ments in the United States devoted to 
wool manufacture, employing one hundred 
and sixty-eight thousand, seven hundred 
and twenty-two hands, and turning out an 
annual prcjduct valued at four hundred and 
thirty-five million, nine hundred and sev- 
enty-eight thousand, five hundred and fiftv- 
eight. New England has four hundred and 



fort}'-eight establishments, employing one 
hundred and seven thousand, one huntlred 
and twenty hands, with a product valued at 
two hundred and sevent\--five million, six 
hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars. 
Both in the numlicr employed and the value 
of the product. New England accounted for 
over sixty-three per cent, of the total. Mas- 
sachusetts, with only one hundred and 
eighty-three establishments, had fifty-three 
thousand, eight hundred and seventy-three 
people employed, or nearlv fifty per cent, of 
all New England, while the product of its 
wool manufacturing industry was valued at 
one hundred and forty-one million, nine 
hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars, 
over fifty-one per cent, of all New England, 
and thirty-two and si.x-tenths per cent, of 
the production of the whole United States. 
These figures were given before the out- 
break of the war. In the past seventy-five 
years the relative position of Massachusetts 
and New England in regard to the wool 
manufacturing industry of the country has 
not changed. Both still stand at the head 
and sur])ass all other states and sections in 
the volume and value of wool manufactures. 
\\'ool manufacturing and wool handling 
are indissolubly linked together. Boston be- 
came the recognized centre of the trade, and 
here came the mill buyers to renew their 
stocks of wool when the needs of their 
plants demanded. Most of the early mills 
were of small size, compared with the enor- 
mous plants now devoted to wool manu- 
facture, and }et the gathering, sorting and 
shipping of the wool they used rapidly grew 
into a great business. At first combined 
with other lines of trade, wool buying and 
wool handling soon came to have separate 
warehouses and selling agencies. Enter- 
prising buyers ransacked the four quarters 
of the globe for raw wool supplies, and, un- 
der the influence of a tarifif for the most 
part rigidly protective, were obliged to im- 
port only the choicest wools for use in 
American mills. American buyers by no 
means confine their energies to foreign mar- 
kets. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from 
the (ireat Lakes to the Rio Grande, Boston 
wool men have been the most important 



'lin-: P,()()K OF BOSTON 



,> 1 r 



factors ill the marketing of tlie doniestic 
clip from year to year. It is still true that 
the country waits for Boston to fix prices, 
before selling the new clip wool. Australia, 
South America, New Zealand, the Cape 
Colony, and in fact all countries in the worUl 
where wool is raised for export, are drawn 
upon for supplies. 

The extent of Boston's control of the 
wool trade may be measured by the annual 
statement of receipts and shipments, as con- 
tained in the statistical reports of the Bos- 
ton Chamber of Commerce. Average re- 
ceipts for ten years past have been over 
three hundred and twenty millicjii pounds, 
the extremes ruiuiing from two hundred 
and twenty-five million, (jne hundred and 
thirt\-seveii tlmusaiid pounds in 1913 to 
four hundred and twenty-nine million, six 
hundred and fifteen thousand pounds in 

1915- 

The receipts of wool for the years 1914 

and 191 5 were as follows: 

Domestic Foreign Total 

Pounds Pounds Pounds 

1914 190,730,629 144,145,401 334,876,030 

1915 181,700,678 247,914,385 429,615,063 

An average annual turnover of over three 
hundred and twenty million pounds, which 
at an estimated average of twenty cents a 
pound would amount to over sixty-four mil- 
lion dollars each year, commands attention 
and explains in part why the wool trade re- 
ceives so much consiileration from banks 
and other financial institutions. 

\\'hile Boston has the ideal location, as 
regards nearness to New England mills, her 
control of the wool trade is based on a more 
solid foundation than this. It is the high 
character, the integrit\-, and the enterprise 
of her wool merchants that has kept the 
power and trade here for nearly a century. 
Present methods of purchasing, grading, 
warehousing and merchandising wool are 
the result of the experience of three genera- 
tions of active wool men. To say that 
the present generation of wool merchants 
worthily sustains the traditions of the trade 
for financial standing, liusiness integritv and 



correct methods, is merely to repeat what is 
widelv known and recognized in the business 
life of the country today. An illuminating 
testimony as to the honesty of purpose of 
the trade is found in the statement that sales 
of wool are made largely on verlml con- 
tracts, and that few written orders are 
found necessary to move so large a volume 
of wool from year to year. 

Years ago were formulated the principles 
which have dominated the trade, and the 
wool merchants of the prosperous period 
preceding the Civil War established the wool 
business on a stalile foundation from which 
it has never been shaken. Association with 
such men was the school in whicli the latter 
dav merchants were trained, and it is this 
training which makes them the power they 
are today. Any story of the wool trade 
would l)e incomplete without some reference 
to such men as William riilt<in, William G. 
I'enedict, Andrew M. Ilowland, Richard P. 
Hallowell, Daniel Dewey. Matthew Luce,. 
lohn ("r, Wright, William R. Dupee, and, 
particularly, that "Nestor of the wool trade," 
George William Bond. These men left such 
reputations for ability, fair dealing and in- 
tegritv. that their former associates and the 
vounger generation still regard their mem- 
orv with respect and admiration. 

Among the names revered in the trade, 
that of George \\'illiam Bond must ever 
stand in a prominent place. Not only was 
he a well-known local figure, l)Ut his statis- 
tical knowledge and practical ability were 
widely recognized and often enlisted in 
efforts to uplift and benefit the trade. Many 
times the United States made use of his. 
services in connection with the gathering of 
statistics concerning the trade, and for years- 
he was a prominent figure among Boston 
wool merchants. 

Among the jirominent figures of the pre- 
ceding generation is that of William G. Ben- 
edict. Born in 1834, and educated in the 
l)ublic schools of Millbury, Mass., his native 
town, he came to Boston in 1850 and en- 
tered the employ of his uncle, Daniel Dennx,. 
with the house of Denny, Rice & Gardner, 
the partners being Daniel Denny, Henry A. 
Rice and Ilenrv T. Gardner, the latter after- 



il2 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



wards serving as Governor of Massachu- 
setts. He was admitted to partnership in 
1 866, and when the wool business was sepa- 
rated from the dry goods business, he re- 
mained with Denny, Rice & Co., who con- 
tinued the wool business in this city. He 
became the head of the house in 1898, and 
remained so until his death in 1904. Mr. 
Benedict made a wide circle of friends in 
the wool trade and among manufacturers, 
by whom he was always respected. One of 
his sons was associated with the elder Bene- 
dict in the firm of Denny, Rice & Benedict, 
and is now Secretary of the Boston Wool 
Trade Association. Mr. Benedict was a 
])rominent figure in financial Boston, being at 
the time of his death a director in the Bos- 
ton Safety Deposit & Trust Company and 
the National Bank of the Republic, and a 
trustee of the Home Savings Bank. 

For many years, Matthew Luce was a 
leading figure in the wool trade of the 
United States. Born in New Bedford in 
1 844, and educated at the Friends' Academy 
in that city, he came to Boston at the age of 
sixteen and entered the employ of Faulkner, 
Kiml)all &■ Co. Later he helped to organize 
the wool house of Manning, Howland & 
Luce, which afterwards became Howland, 
Luce & Co., and then Luce & Manning. He 
was the senior partner in the latter firm at 
the time of his tleath, A\hich occurred in 
1902. He was a director in the North Na- 
tional Bank, the Atlas National Bank, and 
the First National Bank of New Bedford. 

John G. Wright was at one time the 
largest individual importer of foreign wools 
in this city, and did much to extend the 
reputation of the Boston wool trade for en- 
terprise and honesty in remote Colonial wool 
markets in Australasia and South America. 
His parents came to this country in 1812, 
and established the first carpet manufactory 
in the United States at Medway, Mass. 
Later the family moved to Lowell, where 
Alexander Wright established the Lowell 
Carpet Company, and where John G. 
Wright was born in 1842. After some 
years spent in the employ of the Bigelow 
Carpet Company, the Clinton Carpet Com- 
pany and the Lowell ^Machine Shops, he en- 



gaged in the wool business in New York 
with Samuel Lawrence. Under the firm 
name of Lawrence, Wright & Co., he car- 
ried on the wool business in New York 
and Boston until 1885. In that year 
he went into business alone in this city, and 
from that time until his death in 191 2 his 
was a leading figure in the importing wool 
trade. He was at one time president of the 
North National Bank, and at the time of his 
death was one of the trustees of the Home 
Savings Bank. 

It is the universal testimony that for 
integrity, reliability and enterprise, the mem- 
bers of the wool trade will compare favor- 
ably with any other trade here or elsewhere. 
Financially, the wool trade not only has 
large capital, but commands the respect and 
active co-operation of the banks, which are 
always ready to extend any reasonable 
credit. There is something concrete and 
solid about the wool trade that appeals to 
investors. Its control represents large in- 
vestments, and profits sufficiently large to 
make wool paper highly desirable to those 
looking for opportunities for the safe in- 
vestment of large blocks of idle money. 

Still location and financial backing do not 
tell the whole story. There must be ample 
facilities for handling quickly and econom- 
icall}' so large a volume of wool, a complete 
organization for sorting and grading, a thor- 
ough!}' organized and efficient selling force, 
and above all an assured clientele among 
mill owners and wool buj'ers that will take 
up the wool as fast as the needs of the mills 
demand, or attractive prices suggest. All 
these are found here in perfection. Not 
only are the largest wool houses in the world 
located in Boston, but they are equipped 
with the latest and most approved appliances 
for handling wool, while an efiicient force 
of skilled sorters and graders is ready at all 
times to prepare for distribution the new 
wools as they arrive. 

In a general way, the wool forces may be 
divided into three sections, each of great 
importance in the handling of the clip — the 
buyers, the graders and the salesmen. The 
buyers go into the wool-growing sections in 
the Southwest at the beginning of the shear- 



THE ROOK OF BOSTON 



,^13 



iiig season, and follow the clip through all 
the states to the extreme North. The 
graders separate the wools as they arrive in 
the East into their respective grades, while 
the province of the salesmen is to meet the 
mill buyers, and by an intimate acquaintance 
with them and the needs of the mills they 
represent, market the new clip. Some idea 
of the importance of the buying, handling 
and selling organization may be gained from 
the fact that three or four of the leading 
houses may each handle from thirty-five 
million to fifty million pounds of wool in a 
single season, valued at seven million to ten 
million dollars. Approximately seventy per 
cent, of the domestic clip is handled in Bos- 
ton, and in average years not far from one 
hundred and seventy-five million pounds is 
sorted and piled before sale. 

Back of all this organization, as outlined 
above, are the master minds, the responsible 
heads whose capital is at risk, and who fur- 
nish the guiding hand for the successful 
prosecution of this immense business. It is 
their ability and enterprise that keeps Bos- 
ton at the head of the wool trade of the 
country. Buyers in the country but carry 
out the orders from headquarters, and as 
the employers give the orders when t(j buy or 
when to stop, theirs is the responsibility in 
case of error, and the profit when all goes 
well. While Boston's wool merchants main- 
tain the present average of energy, ability 
and honest}-, the supremacy of the city as a 
great wool market is not likely to be lost. 

Naturally, Boston ofifers advantages to 
wool buyers not shared by other markets. 
This brings inquiry from manufacturing 
centres throughout the East, so that the 
local trading is by no means confined to New 
England mills. Every type and grade of 
wool is to be found here in the season, while 
the large stocks carried give an opportunity 
for selection most attractive to manufac- 
turers. Occasionally as much as thirty mil- 
lion to forty million pounds of wool changes 
hands in a single week, this being at times 
when the tariff policy of the (iovernment 
appears to be fixed ami the continued pros- 
perity of the mills assured. There is some- 
thing in the atmosphere of the wool trade 



stimulating to the imagination, and which 
e.xcites the admiration of even the casual 
visitor. There is a deliberation, an unhur- 
ried method of selling, which shines \)\ com- 
parison with the fuss\- importance which 
sometimes marks the conduct of latter-day 
business. Yet, st)me of these trades in wool 
mount up to hundreds of thousands of dol- 
lars, and even to millions in rare cases. 

Financial stability is a marked character- 
istic of the wool trade. Even in months fol- 
lowing the panics of 1893, 1896 and 1907, 
when depression was extreme in all branches 
of trade, there were no failures, a fact that 
speaks volumes for the conservative man- 
agement and stability of Boston's wool 
houses. For many years the trade has been 
free from failures of any note. This does 
not necessarily mean that profits are ex- 
treme, for such is not the fact. It indicates 
that capital is ample, credit first-class, and 
managing ability of the highest order. As 
might be supposed, leading wool men have 
taken a large part in the financial control of 
the cit\-'s trade. Such men as Jeremiah 
Williams, Jacob F. Brown, and others of the 
present or past generation, who have been or 
are still directors in financial institutions, in- 
dicate the extent to ^hich the wool trade 
has made its impress upon the financial life 
of the city. 

There have been many changes in the per- 
sonnel of the wool trade in recent years, but 
through all the changes nothing has oc- 
curred to alter its character from the en- 
lightened and progressive conservatism of 
former years, if the use of such a paradoxi- 
cal statement were permitted. Among the 
leading houses today may be mentioned 
Jeremiah AMlliams & Co., Brown & Adams, 
Hallowell, Jones & Donald, Mauger & 
Avery, Dewey, Gould & Co., Arthur E. 
Gill, Francis Willey & Co., Winslow & Co., 
Luce & Manning, Salter Bros. & Co., Daniel 
S. FVatt & Co., English & O'Brien. W. R. 
Bateman & Co., .\yres, IJridges & Co., and 
John G. Wright X; Co., with a number of 
others who are worthily maintaining the 
best traditions of the trade. 

Among the importers and brokers who 
ha\e helped to make the name of Boston re- 



314 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



spected in primary markets at home and 
abroad may be mentioned Lothrop & Ben- 
nett, George W. Benedict, and others whose 
activities reach into every part of the world 
where wool is bought and sold, and who 
help to keep Boston in the forefront of wool 
activit}-. It cannot be said that any house 
has a monopoly of trade or methods. Some 
of the larger houses send their own buyers 
into foreign primar}' markets as well as into 
the western part of the United States, and 
their annual turnover covers about all grades 
called for in this market. Others confine 
their operations to the successful handling of 
some particular class of wool, and have l:)uilt 
up a reputation as experts in their chosen 
line. 

Before the great fire of 1872, most of 
the importers and foreign l:)rokers were 
grouped near the Custom House, while the 
larger selling houses were to be found in 
Federal and contiguous streets. Driven 
from the latter section by the fire, the wool 
trade was temporarily housed in other parts 
of the city, many of the firms finding quar- 
ters in the neighborhood of the Custom 
House. 

With the rebuilding of the city, there was 
a "homing" of the wool trade to the old 
location, and for many years in the latter 
part of the nineteenth century the centre of 
wool activity was in the narrow space be- 
tween Franklin and Summer Streets, with 
Federal Street as the base. Of late years, 
the growth of the city has forced most of 
the wool houses to find new quarters. Sum- 
mer Street Extension has provided the out- 
let, and now the majorit\- of the houses are 
located to the eastward of Atlantic Avenue, 



extending as far as D and E Streets in 
South Boston. 

Prominent among the agencies which 
have tended in recent years to give solidarity 
to the wool trade has been the Boston Wool 
Trade Association. Organized in Novem- 
ber, 191 1, with Jeremiah Williams as Presi- 
dent, Jacob F. Brown as Vice-President, and 
George W. Benedict as Secretary and Treas- 
urer, it soon became a power for good. 
Social intercourse is promoted at annual 
dinners and summer outings, luit its activi- 
ties are by no means confined to the social 
side. Frequent meetings are held during the 
year at which the veterans in the trade, l^y 
story and reminiscence, revive the Ijest tradi- 
tions of mercantile Boston, or give instruc- 
tion or suggestions to the younger memljers 
on technical points connected with the han- 
dling of wool and its manufacture into cloth. 
Charles F. Avery is now president of the 
Association, succeeding in that ofiice Arthur 
E. Gill, Ijut Mr. Benedict has served as sec- 
retary and treasurer from the first. One of 
the ways in which the Association has been 
found useful has been in the annual com- 
pilation of the unsold stocks of wool in Bos- 
ton on January i. For three years these 
figures have been gathered and pul)lished, 
and it now appears to be the settled policy of 
the trade. Probably the advantages to be 
derived from concerted action, such as the 
Association is admirably adapted to secure, 
were never more apparent than in the em- 
phatic protest which was signed by every 
house in the trade, and was forwarded to 
Washington as a statement of the position 
of the trade regarding the proposed duty on 
wool tops. 



"HI-: I'.OOK OF I^OSTOX 



,^15 



])AX11-:L S. I'R AT'l' & CO. 



Tlie wool I'irin uf Daniel S. Pratt & Cd. 
was foundc'il in 18A6 liy the present head of 
the house, \\ ho, previous to his entry into the 
business, had gained a comprehensive knowl- 
edge of wool that made him an expert in 
that line. Air. I'ratt was horn in Hartford, 
May 21, 1845, the son of Elisha B. and 
Susan Dottomley (Sharp) Pratt. His 
father was, at the time of his death. Presi- 
dent of the Union ]\lutual Life Insurance 
Co., and had lieen one of the organizers of 
the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co., 
ot which he was first vice-president. His 
intense interest in the organization and con- 
duct of these Companies made him familiarl\- 
known as the "Father of Life In.surance" 
in New England. His mother's father was 
the Rev. Daniel Shar|), D.D., who was for 
nearly a half century pastor of the Charles 
Street Baptist Church. Both paternal and 
maternal ancestors were F'nglish, who hatl 
settled in New Englan<l in the early days, 
and the maternal side is related to the faiuily 
of Cranville Sharp of London, luigland, 
who made the successful fight for the abol- 
ishiuent of slavery in the Fjiglish Ct)lonies, 
and to whose memory the London African 
Society placed a tablet in Westminster 
Abbey in 1S12. 

Air. Pratt was educated at the D wight 
.School and the F^nglish High Schodl. Bos- 
ton, after which he became an emplo\e in 
the house of Thayer, Brigham & Co., 3 J 
India Street. From there he went to the 
Middlesex ilills to learn wool sorting and 
gain a general knowledge of wool. Thor- 
oughly e(pii|)pe(l, he returned to Boston and 
started in business ;is a wnol broker. In the 
earl}' da_\s of llie worsted trade be was 
identified with combing \\(jo1s ;md for 
many years supplied various mills with 



Kentuck\- and other Western wools. Later 
on, when the .South .\merican ("rossbred 
Wools began to be used in this countr}', 
there was gre;it complaint about the irregu- 
lar grades being ship]>ed and, also, of the 
presence t)f ;i very o])jectionab!e s])iral burr. 
In i8(>5, Mr. Pratt went to Buenos Aires 
in an endeavor to find soiue means of avoid- 
ing the burr and to estalilish standard grades 
that wiiuld suit tlie various consumers in the 
American market. Mr. Pratt's efforts were 
successful, and while benefiting the entire 
trade of the L^nited States, resulted in the 
establishment of what has since been known 
as the "Pratt Standard (irades" of Argen- 
tine wools, ;md tlie registered trade mark, 
"D. S. P. " with the grade number below, 
is now recognized as forming a standard of 
value in the .\merican market. 

While in South America Mr. Pratt 
fonued a connection with Alessrs. Engelbert 
Hardt & Co. of Buenos Aires, Montevideo, 
and Punta Arenas, one of the twentv-eight 
oversea firms whose parent house is Messrs. 
Hardt & Co. of Berlin, of which Fjigelbert 
Hardt, Es(|., is the senior jiartner. .V com- 
munity of interests was soon rec(.ignized, 
and the connection becaiue closer, and for 
man\ \ears Daniel .S. Pratt & Co. have been 
sole agents in the Lnited States and Canada 
for Messrs. Engelbert Hardt & Co., as well 
as for the .Vustralian houses of Messrs. G. 
1 lardt & Co., Melljourne, Sydney and Bris- 
bane. This great chain of houses, in addi- 
tion to the exportation of wool ;ind other 
pr(jducts, each has a large im])ortatiou busi- 
ness, sup]ilying their local markets with the 
\arious ipialities and kmds of I'"iU'opi';ni mill 
])roducts. 

l-"or more than twent\- \ears tluw have 
worked together in i)erfect accord, with the 



316 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 




DANIEL S. PRATT 
FOUNDER OF DANIEL S. PRATT & COMPANY 



sole purpose of doing the best that can be 
done for the interest of the American clients. 
In 19 lo, Daniel S. Pratt, Jr., was ad- 
mitted to partnership by his father. He 
was born at Wellesley Hills, April 15, 1875, 
and after being educated at the schools in 
the place of his birth, entered the employ 
of the John Hancock Life Insurance Co., 
and rose from a mediocre position to that 



of head of a division. During his years of 
service with the insurance company, his 
father had labored to imbue him with a 
knowledge of the various points of the wool 
trade, with the view of admitting him to 
partnership, and when that action was finally 
taken the son was equipped with a learn- 
ing that had been unconsciously acquired 
through his nightly talks with the father and 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




DANIEL S. PRATT, JR. 
OF THE FIRM OF DANIEL S. PRATT & CO. 



hy assistint;- him tn translate the various 
cablegrams that came to their home after 
the close of l)usiness hours. Mr. Pratt, Jr., 
looks after the outside department of the 
firm and has been very successful in selling 
\vo(]]s and olitaiiiing importing orders. He 
is a member of the 1^'nion I'.oat Club of 
Boston, the Wellesley Country Club and the 
Maugus Club of Wellesley Hills. He is 



greatl\- interested in canoeing and is a mem- 
ber of the American Canoe .Vssociation, 
which fosters racing and encourages the 
sjiort in everx' way. He has lieen active in 
the Association's work, lilling its various 
official positions for inan\- \-ears. The of- 
fices <jf Daniel S. Pratt tS; Co. are at 185 
Summer Street, in the centre <if the wool 
district of Boston. 



118 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



WILLIAM R. BATEMAN 
William R. Bateman, one of the oldest 
wool brokers in Boston, who specializes in 
foreign wools, particularly the South Amer- 




WILLIAM R. BATEMAN 



ican product, was born in Hull, England, but 
is a thorough New Englander in tastes and 
inclination. He was brought to the L'nited 
States when a boy and was educated in the 
schools of East Medway, Mass., and Port- 
land, Me. When fourteen years of age he 
entered the employ of George \\'illiam Bond 
& Co. of Boston. He gained a thorough 
knowledge of the wool brokerage business 
^\•ith this firm, antl in 1880 started for him- 
self in the same line, acting at different 
times as broker for Downer & Co., N. W. 
Rice Xlo., Hemenway & Brown, A. S. 
Spring, Charles F. Perry and George F. 
Granger, the first two named firms being the 
cnly ones now in business. Mr. Bateman 
introduced the first South American cross- 
bred wool to the United States trade, and 
from an initial shipment of seven bales, the 
importation now amounts to millions of 
pounds annually. Mr. Bateman is naturally 
proud of this achievement, which was the 
result of the most arduous work and close 



application tu the business. He is a member 
of the Masonic fraternity, and was the tenor 
of the noted Temple Quartette that for 
years sang in leading Masonic lodges 
throughout the country, and is also an old 
member of the Apollo Club, a director of 
the Megantic Fish and Game Club, and 
holds membership in the Boston Wool Club. 
He is senior partner in the firm of W. R. 
Bateman & Co., with offices at 157 Federal 
Street. 

WILLIAM J. BATTISON 

William J. Battison was born at Ampthili. 
England, January 25, 1842. He came with 
his family to Boston in 1844 and was edu- 
cated in Boston public schools, receiving a 
Franklin medal in 1855. Mr. Battison is 
the statistician of the National Association 
of Wool Manufacturers ; compiler of the 
Annual Wool Review ; was Expert Special 
Agent, twelfth United States Census for 
Wool Manufacturers and Hosiery and Knit 




WILLIAM J. BATTISON 

Goods, antl author of the report on those 
industries fnr that Census, and is Consulting 
Special Agent later U. S. Censuses. He is 
a member of various organizations. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



.^19 



ENGLISH &■ O'BRIEN 

The firm of Enj^lish & O'Brien, iniportcrs 
of foreign wools and manufacturers of fine 

and crosslired tops, at jy^ Con^Tess Street, 




WILLIAM A. ENGLISH 

is one of the younger concerns that has 
made an enviable reputation in the trade. 
Both members of the firm have had long 
experience in the business, and their energ\- 
and application have so extended their out- 
])ut that they are well known in the wool- 
markets of Australia, South America and 
iMigland. The fine and crossbred tops 
handled b}' the firm are manufactured at the 
Victoria Mills, Thornton, K. I., and are 
favorably known to manufacturers thmugh- 
out the entire country. 

William A. English, senior member of 
the firm, was born in Colchester, Conn., 
June 13, 1879, and was educated at the 
gramni.ir school, Jamaica Plain, In July, 
|S(;_:;, he was employed as an oftice boy l)y 
Harry Hartley, 612 Atlantic Avenue, and 
subse(|uentl\- advanced to the positions of 
sample clerk, salesman antl Ijuyer. In 1910, 
the business was incorporated as Harry 
Hartley & Co., and Mr. luiglish was made 



vice-i>resi(lent of the new company. In 1912, 
Mr. Harry Hartley retired from active busi- 
ness and the firm became Hartley & Co., 
consisting of Mr. Erank Hartley, William 
A. English and Jnhn 11. ( )'Brien. Upon 
the retir.al of Mr. l""rank Hartley in 1913 
the firm assumed its present title. 

John H. O'llrien, the other member of 
the firm, was born in New Brunswick, N. J., 
and graduated from the Asbury Park, N. J., 
schools in iS()S, and like Mr. English began 
his business career with Mr. P'red Hartley 
in i()Oi. He remained in this connection 
until i<;o<;. when he became associated with 
Harry Hartley & Co., and eventually a 
member of the ])resent firm, lioth Mr. Eng- 
lish and Mr. O'lirien, in their long appren- 
ticeship to the wool trade, learned every de- 
tail of the business, so that when they finally 
emljarked in the trade on their own account 
they were thoroughlv e(|uip|)ed t(_) cope with 
everv detail of the business, and their suc- 




JOHN H. O HRIKN 

cess is entirely due tn a thornugh knowledge 
of the product they handle and a perfect 
faniiliarit\' with trade conditions in this 
countr\' and abroad. 




JACOB F. BROWN 

OF THE FIRM OF BROWN & ADAMS 

285 AND 297 SUMMER STREET 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



321 



JACOB F. BROWN 

Boston, which is conceded tu he the 
largest wool market in the United States, 
has no more representative and progressive 
house than Brown & Adams, whose opera- 
tions in wool extend to every country where 
that conimodity is produced or consumed in 
the manufacture of cloth. The firm oc- 
cupies the large huilding, 269-79 Summer 
Street, which is seven stories high and is 
used as a warehouse, executive offices, head- 
(|uarters of the large sales force and for 
testing purposes. Other warehouses which 
are essential for the firnrs large operations 
are located at 285-297 Summer Street and 
on Boston Street, in South Boston. 

Jacob F. Brown, senior member of the 
firm, was born in Newburyport, Mass., 
August 30, 1862, and was educated at the 
Brown High School, located in the city of 
his birth. Upon leaving school, he entered 
the employ of A. M. Flowland & Co., in 
iX7(). This firm was engaged in the wool 
business, and in the six years that followed 
his first emplo\'ment he had mastered the 
details of the business, and in 1885 became a 
wool broker. He continued in this line 
until 1892, when he organized the firm of 
Brown & Adams, which sor)n Itecame an 
important factor in the trade and is now 
recognized as one of the largest wool houses 
in the world, handling every variety of 
wool. In addition to his interest in the firm 
of Brown & Adams, Mr. Brown is a direc- 
tor of the National Shawnuit I5ank, vice- 
president and director of .S. Slater & 
Sons, Inc., and trustee of the estate of 
Horatio N. Slater. He is a member of 
the Algonquin Club, Brookline Country 
Clul), New York Yacht Club, Fastern Yacht 
Clul), the Boston Yacht Club, and is an e.x- 
president of the Boston Wool 'i'rade Asso- 
ciation. Mr. r.rown is very fond of yacht- 
ing, and his oftice walls are adorned with 
paintings of .ships and yachts. He is a son of 
Jacob Bartlett and Anna Augusta (b'itch) 
Brown, and was married April 2i^, 1892, 
to Mariette Starr Seeley of New York, the 
union bringing one daughter. 



GEORC.F W. BENEDICT 

George W. Benedict, secretary and treas- 
urer of the Boston Wool Trade Association,, 
born in Boston, August 13, 1862, educated 




GEORGE VV. BENEDICT 

in the pulilic schools .and English High 
Schotjl. from which he graduated in 
1880. One }ear later he entered the 
wool house of Denny, Rice & Co. , of 
which his father was a member. He was 
later adiuitted to partnership, the firm be- 
coming Denny, Rice & Benedict. This Iiusi- 
ness was liquidated in 1904, and Mr. Bene- 
dict became a purchasing and selling agent 
for wool, tops, and noils, and representative 
of prominent varn spinners. He has filled 
his present position with the Wool Trade 
Association since mi i . !Mr. Benedict is 
descended from Richard Warren, who came 
over on the "Mayfiower," and is a mem- 
ber of the Union Club and Society of May- 
flower Descendants. He married, October 
I, 1 89 1, Anna Louise Bull, of Ouincy, Illi- 
nois, and has two daughters and one son. 



Boston Common was first laid out in 
1634, as "a place for a trayning field," and 
for "the feeding of cattell." 



I" 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



AYRES, BRIDGES & CO. 



Samuel Loring Ayres, senior member of 
the house of Ayres, Bridges & Co., was 
born in Norfoli<, \'a., September lo, 1874, 




and was educated at the Polytechnic In- 
stitute, Brooklyn, N. Y. He began his busi- 
ness career in New York in 1892, and four- 
teen years later joined Samuel W. Bridges 
in the formation of the present firm. Mr. 
Ayres is a member of the Dedham Country 
and Polo Club, Boston Yacht Club, Boston 
Wool Trade Association, Harvard Musical 
Association, American-Asiatic Association, 
and the India House, New York. He is 
vice-president and director of the China- 
American Trading Co., of Tientsin, China, 
and was president of the American Cotton 
Waste Exchange in 19 15 and 1916. 

Samuel A\'. I'ridges, of Ayres, Bridges 
& Co., was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., Jan- 
uary 28, 1874. He was educated in the 
Polytechnic Institute in that city and began 
his business career with the English im- 
porting house of Robert Crooks & Co., 
where he remained until the firm of Avres, 



Bridges & Co. was formed. Mr. Bridges 
is a descendant of Ednuind Bridges, who 
settled in Massachusetts in 1632. He is 
president and treasurer of the China-Ameri- 
can Trading Co., a director of the Queens- 
liury Mills, a member of the Boston Cham- 
Ijer of Commerce, Biiston \\'ool Trade As- 
sociation, Boston Cotton Waste Associa- 
tion, Asiatic Society of New York, and the 
Hunnewell. Commonwealth Country, New- 
ton Golf, Tedesco Country and Brae 
Burn Country Clubs. 

The firm of Ayres, Bridges & Co., whose 
Boston offices are at 200 Summer Street, 
is engaged in the importation and exporta- 
tion of cotton and wool. It has branches 
in New York and Philadelphia, with con- 
nections all over the world, and also con- 
trols cotton waste mills at Chicopee, Mass. 




SAMUEL W. BRIDGES 

In 1909 Mr. Ayres and Air. Bridges estab- 
lished "The China-American Trading Co." 
to handle large growing interests in the 
China trade. The offices of the company 



TIIK 1U)()K OF BOSTON' 







office; and GO-IO.VNS of the CHINA-AMERICAN trading CO.. TIENTSIN, CHINA 



are located at Tientsin and it is tlie onl\- 
American house liandling the same class of 
business. L. O. IMcGuwan, formerly of 
Boston, is managing director of the Tien- 
tsin house and the liranches in Shanghai 



and Ilarhin. The offices and gi:)-do\vns of 
the conipanx' are all modern brick and con- 
crete construction and the United States 
troops are quartered in part of the go- 
downs. 



ALFRED AKFRO^'F) 

Alfred Akeroyd, broker in wool, whose 
knowledge of that protluct was gained while 
an apprentice witlT ]. Akeroyd & Co., of 

Bradford, Englanil, 
where he was l)orn 
May 21, 1N75, is 
m )w located at 228A 
Summer Street and 
has been unusuallv 
successful w i t h 
the New England 
trade. Mr. Ake- 
royd came to this 
country in i<^93 
and was hrst em- 
ployed as a sales- 
man with (1. W. 
i'atton 1^ Co., (_)f 
l'hiladel])hia. After 
two years with this 
hrm he went to South Africa as buyer for 
Keen, Sutterle & Co., and upon his return 
to the Quaker City, became a woi}l broker 
there. He came to Bo.ston in 1907 and en- 
gaged in the same line, being of the third 
generation in the wool liusiness. He is a 
member of the Brae JUirn Countrw b'pis- 
copalian, City and Victorian Clubs. 




Al.t Kll) AKhROVD 



LOTTIROT' & BENNETT 

The Imsiness of Lothrop & Bennett was 
estal)lished by Mr. Sidney Clementson. who 
was born in Demerara, British (iuiana, Sep- 
tember 25, 1850, 
the son of Hon. 
Flenry Clementson. 
He was one of the 
pioneers in the busi- 
ness of purchasing- 
wool in Australia, 
on order, for mills 
and dealers in that 
product in the 
United States, and 
conducted the busi- 
ness with success 
f o r twenty - liw 
years. He retired 
on August I, KJ07, 
after forty rears in 
the wool business, and was succeeded by the 
])resent fn'm of Lothro]) & Bennett, Mr. 
Lothrop ha\ing been assiK'iated with him 
for t\vent\-seven years and Mr. Bennett, in 
Melbourne, for tliirteen \ears. The jiresent 
tirm is one oi the largest in its line of 
business. 




.SIDNEY CLEMENTSON 



324 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



JOHN G. 
John G. \\'right, merchant and philan- 
thropist, who died at his home in BrookHne, 
January 31, 1912, was born in Lowell, 




JOHN G. WRIGHT (DECEASED) 

Mass., July 29, 1842, the son of John and 
Janet ( Wilson ) Wright. For over one hun- 
dred years Mr. Wright's ancestors were 
prominent in New England affairs, his 
grandfather, Duncan Wright, together with 
his elder brother, Daniel, having introduced 
chemical bleaching in this country early in 
the nineteenth century. On the maternal 
side he was a nephew of Alexander Wilson, 
the distinguished ornithologist. The 
Weights came to the United States from 
Scotland in 1812, and established the first 
carpet factory in this country at Medway, 
Mass. The family later removed to Lowell, 
where Alexander Wright established the 
Lowell Carpet Company. John Gordon 
Wright entered the employ of the Bigelow 
Carpet Co. at the age of twelve and re- 
mained with that company for three years. 
He then attended the Lancaster Academy, 



WRIGHT 
and upon finishing his studies was in the 
employ of Patterson, Eager & Co., Boston, 
for one year, resigning his position to be- 
come paymaster of the Clinton Carpet Co. 
Receiving an advantageous offer from the 
Lowell Machine Shops, of Lowell, he spent 
four years with that concern in making up 
machinery costs, and then entered the wool 
business in New York City as the associate 
of Samuel Lawrence. He came to Boston 
in 1866 as a member of the firm of Law- 
rence, Wright & Co., but severed this con- 
nection in 1884 to enter business alone. He 
soon became known as the largest individual 
ini])<:)rter of wool and was aljout the first 
merchant in the trade to specialize in and 
import the Australian fleece. He was also 
a large and early importer of South Ameri- 
can wool. During his entire business 
career Mr. Wright was known and respected 
for his many philanthropies and his con- 
sideration for his less fortunate fellow man. 
He was a member of the Boston Chamber 
of Commerce, of which he was a director, 
and the Exchange. Commercial and Boston 
Art Clubs. He was a trustee of the Episco- 
]ial Theological School of Cambridge, to 
\\hich he gave a new library Iniilding, and 
a meml)er of the Board of Directors of the 
Home Savings Bank. Mr. W^right had been 
ill for some time previous to his death and, 
realizing his approaching end. carefully ar- 
ranged for the continuance of the business, 
naming his nephew, John G. Wright, 2nd, 
and Howard Atwood, who had been asso- 
ciated with him for many years, as his suc- 
cessors. In pursuance of Mr. W^right's final 
instructions, the business was incorporated 
Novemljer i, 1912, Mr. Atwood, who has 
a most comprehensive knowledge of every 
phase of the trade, 1)ecoming president and 
treasurer of the company, which is known 
as John G. Wright & Co., Inc., and John G. 
Wright, 2nd, who had just completed a col- 
legiate course, its vice-president. The old 
offices of Mr. Wright, at 620 Atlantic 
Avenue, were retained and the business is 
conducted along precisely the same lines 
that brought the founder success. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



M5 



F. LUCAS SUTCLIFFE 
F. Lucas Sutcliffe, resid-ent partner of 
the Fiiglish house of Sutcliffe & Co., dealers 
in wool, was horn in Halifax. iMi^land. 



L'nited States and Canada. The Boston 
offices of Sutcliffe & Co. are located at 263 
Summer Street and the executive offices and 
warehouses are located at Halifax, England. 




LUCAS SUTCLIFFE 



October 16, 1885, and was educated at 
Marlborough College, England. Mr. Sut- 
cliff'e came to the United States in 1907 as 
a representative of the parent house antl 
opened an office in Boston, where the wool 
interests of the L^nited States are centred. 
He was brought up in the wool trade and 
was thoroughly conversant with every 
phase of the business before leaving the 
land of his birth and in consequence has 
l)een highly successful in the American 
field. He is fond of all outdoor sports. He 
holds membership in the Boston Athletic 
and Corinthian Yacht Clubs and the Manu- 
facturers Club of Philadelphia. The house 
of Sutcliff'e & Co. was established in 1828 
and the senior member of the firm is 
Thomas Sutcliffe, father of F. Lucas Sut- 
cliffe. English and all kinds of foreign 
wools are handled and the English house 
has a large trade in every foreign country 
where wool is used, while the Boston house 
sells to consumers throughout the entire 



The first newspaper in America was is- 
sued in Boston on April 24, 1704. It was 
called the Boston A'c-a's-Lcttcr, and its 
founder was John Campbell, and its first 
nunilier may yet be seen in the library of 
the Alassachusetts Historical Society. 

H. DAWSON & CO. 

H. Dawson & Co., wool brokers with of- 
fices at 200 Summer Street, is one of the 
most active firms in the various wool centres 
of the workl. It was founded in England 
in 1892, as Hick, Martin & Drysdale, be- 
coming, six years later. Hick, Dawson & 
Co., and, in 1898, H. Dawson & Co. The 
main office is at 74 Coleman Street, Lon- 
tlon, the Boston house being established in 
order to keep in closer touch with the 
American markets. The business extends 
to all the large wool-producing and wool- 
consuming centres at home and al)road, the 
firm collecting wool in all the countries of 
production and distributing the same in 
every important seat of woolen manufactur- 
ing industry. Branches are maintained at 
10 Booth Street, Bradford; 7 and 8 Byram 
Arcade, Hutldersfield; 18 Rue du Brou, 
Verviers; 200 Summer Street, Boston, 
U. S. A. ; Malcolm Lane, off George Street, 
Sydney; Russels Buiklings, Dunedin; 172 
Manchester Street, Christchurch; Bernardo 
de Irigoyen, Buenos Ayres. 

The firm's clientele among j)roducers and 
consumers is a large and representative one, 
and it issues a periodical circular in which 
the existing conditions of the market are re- 
viewed. It keeps the consumer posted on 
the market outlook and gives figures show- 
ing the quantities of "held over" wool from 
colonial sources. The firm has collecting 
agencies in Australia, New Zealand, Argen- 
tine, South Africa and Patagonia, ami its 
perfect organization makes it a leader in 
the trade. 



?26 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




JOHN L. FARRELL 

Juhn L. Farrell was Jxirn in Dorchester, 
Mass., March 28, 1865. He was echicated 
in the piibhc schools of Boston and Ijecame 

associated with a 
New Y( irk wool 
concern, in 1882. 
Three years later 
he returned to Bos- 
ton and began busi- 
ness on his own ac- 
ciiunt, specializing- 
in carpet wools and 
acting as agent for 
di imestic receivers 
of foreign carpet 
wools and iov ship- 
pers in T u r k e y , 
Russia, France and 
England. His busi- 
ness has increased 
to large proportions during the thirt}' years 
he has been engaged in it, and he has com- 
mercial dealings with nearly all the users of 
carpet wool in this country. 

CHARLES F. AX^ERY 

Charles F. Avery, doing business under 
the name of Mauger & Avery, was born in 
New York City March 25,' 1847. In 1862 
he entered the employ of Walter Brown & 
Co., wool merchants. New York. In Jan- 
uary, 1873, with Nicholas Mauger, who re- 
tired in 1904, he formed the firm of Mauger 
& Avery, wool Ijrokers. Branch offices were 
established in Boston, Chicago, Providence 
and Philadelphia, but owing to illness of Mr. 
Avery, these were eventually discontinued, 
with the exception of the Boston office, 
which was taken in charge bv Mr. Avery 



JOHN L. FARRELL 



in 1884, and where the Ijusiness has steadily 
developed. Mr. Avery comes of distin- 
guished Colonial ancestry on both paternal 
and maternal sides. He is descended from 
AVilliam Avery of Dedham. Mr. Avery is 
president of the Boston Wool Trade 
Association, is president of the Albemarle 
Golf Club, and a member of several other 
clubs. He is junior warden of St. John's 
Episcopal Church, Newtonville, and served 
the city of Newton on the School Commit- 
tee for six years, and on the Board of Alder- 
luen for three terms. 



EDWARD B. CARLETON 

Edward B. Carleton, wool merchant, was 
born in Boston October 20, 1857, and was 
educated at the Dwight School, graduating 

in 1873. One year 
later he entered the 
wool trade, and 
previous to found- 
ing the firm of E. 
B. Carleton & Co. 
in 1896 was for 
seventeen }' e a r s 
C( nnected with the 
Nonantum Worsted 
Co. He is now sole 
jiroprietor of E. l'>. 
Carleton & Co. with 
ofiices at 620 At- 
lantic Avenue, and 
handles all grades 
of foreign and 
having a large clientele 




EDWARD B. CARLETON 



domestic wool 
among the New England manufacturers. 
He is a Repul)lican in politics, and is a mem- 
lier of the Boston Wool Trade Association 
and the Algontpiin Club. 



THR TUX)K OF ROSTOX 



WILI.IAM M. WU(JI) 



The American WUdlcn Co., mie df tlie 
greatest industrial concerns in this cnunlrx-, 
was organized 1j\'. and un(|uestinnal)ly owes 
its phenomenal success to William M. Wood, 
whose keen foresight and great executive 
aliilit\' were develoi)ed by a necessitated con- 
tact w ith the business world from early hoy- 
hood. Air. W'ood is a native New Knglander. 
lie was horn in E<lgarto\\n, a i|uaint 
town at the easterh' edge of the island (jf 
Martha's A'inevard, Mass.. on June 13, 
1853, the son of William Jason, and .\melia 
Christine (Madison) Wood, who were of 
English and Portuguese ancestry. The 
family moved later to New lied ford where 
Mr. W'ood, then <ml\- four \ears of age, be- 
gan studv in the public schools and after- 
wards attended the New liedford High 
School, but did not graduate. lie was 
twelve years old when his father died and 
being the oldest son was looked u])on as the 
mainstay of the family. He had previously 
worketl as cash liov in a local store and had 
essayed the role of merchant, buying apples 
at auction by the barrel and vending them 
bv the peck. He was successful for one 
week when the local grocer, noticing the 
boy's growing trade, attended the next fruit 
sale and hid the apples uj) to a price that 
left no possible profit. This was Mr. Wood's 
first exjjerience with grinding competition, 
and it ended his career as a retail merchant. 
After leaving the public schools Mr. 
W^ood spent his evenings and nights for 
several years in stu(h-. He was interested 
in Latin, French and (/lerman. He kejit his 
own private books in German, and studied 
algebra an<l the higher mathem;itics. At 
fifteen years he was studxing rhetoric, and 
was attempting to master the violin, but the 
cost of the lessons compelled an abandon- 
ment of music. .At eighteen young Wood 
es.sa_\ed an interpretation of Moore's Lalla 
Rookh. from which he quotes readiK' todav. 
His reading has been kept u]i throughout a 
crowded life, and he has an uiuisual knowl- 
edge of literature. On the death of the 
father of voung Wood, Hon. .\ndrew (1. 



Pierce, one of the mo.st distinguished citizens 
of the town became his guardian. 

Mr. Wood's first steady emplo\-ment was 
in the counting-room of the celebratetl \\'am- 
sutta Mills, pioneers in the manufacture of 
the finer cotton fabrics, at that time a rela- 
tively siuall affair and the onh" cotton mill 
in New Bedford. He remained three years 
in this capacit}', absorbing ever\- detail of 
the business by close application, and was 
then transferred to the manufacturing de- 
partment, where three more \ears were spent 
in ac(|uiring a thorough knowledge of the 
practical end of this business. 

Mr. Wood, at this ])eriod, was serving 
under remarkable men, and the environment 
and infiueiice had luuch to do with shaping 
his future career. Anicjug the ofiicers of the 
W'amsutta Mills were Hon. Joseph Grinnell, 
l)rother of the great merchant after whom 
(irinnell Land in the Arctic Ocean was 
named; Hon. Jonathan Pourne, father of 
the Oregon Senator; Hon. Andrew G. 
Pierce, Mr. Wood's guardian, w ho took deep 
interest in the orphan boy, and Hon. William 
W. Crapo — all distinguished for their 
wisdom and probity. 

Mr. W'^ood never was a mill employee in 
the ordinary sense of the term. The friendly 
interest of the chief men of New Bedford 
gave him an unusual opportunity. He 
leartied the manufacturing Inisiness from 
men like Thomas Bennett, Jr., the founder of 
the Wamsutta Mills, and agent for many 
years, antl later from Edward Kilburn. He- 
realized his advantage, and made the most 
of it, spending all the time possible among 
the machinery. The overseers were kindly 
and helpful to the ambitious bo\-, and when 
he left the W'amsutt.i Mills it was with a 
thorough knowledge of the technical details 
of the industry. 

Boylike, Mr. WHod wisheil to see some- 
thing of the world, and left for Philadelphia, 
where he secured a jjosition in a bankers' 
and brokers' otifice, that ga\e him an insight 
into the workings of the Philadelphia stock 
exchange. .After si.x months of life in Phil- 
adelphia, he was offered a [lost in the l)ank- 



328 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ing house of A. Beauvais & Co., of New 
Bedford. This meant a new and liroad field 
of mercantile experience. A national bank 
Avas organized by Mr. Beauvais with his 
young clerk's assistance, and Mr. Wood thus 
secured a practical insight into the methods 
and principles of finance. 

At this period the sterling men of New 
Bedford were being sought for posts of re- 
sponsibility in the near-by manufacturing 
■city of Fall River, where there had been 
some lamentable breaches of trust by several 
mill treasurers. An able New Bedford 
manufacturer of a famous family, Mr. Otis 
N. Pierce, now president of the Grinnell 
Mills, became the treasurer of one of the 
reorganized Fall River corporations, and he 
selected Mr. Wood as assistant and pay- 
master. Subsequently, Mr. Wood served 
under another eminent manufacturer, Mr. 
Edward L. Anthony, who succeeded Mr. 
Pierce as treasurer of the Border City Mills. 
Mr. Wood passed six busy and successful 
years in this connection, winning such golden 
opinions that a group of observant friends 
determined to build a cotton mill for his 
own management. 

But fate directed otherwise. One of the 
greatest textile manufacturing concerns in 
the country, the Washington Mills of Law- 
rence, Mass., after a series of vicissitudes, 
was sold by auction to Frederick Ayer, of 
Lowell, a gentleman of large wealth and 
lousiness acumen. Mr. Ayer invited Thomas 
Sampson, an experienced manufacturer of 
Rhode Island, to become the agent of the 
AVashington Mills, and Mr. Sampson per- 
suaded Mr. Wood to give up the idea of a 
cotton mill of his own in favor of the large 
responsibility of the management of the cot- 
ton manufacturing department of the busi- 
ness at Lawrence. But the directors of the 
Washington Mills suddenly decided to de- 
vote their plant entirely to the production 
of worsted goods, and when Mr. Wood be- 
gan his Lawrence career it was as an assist- 
ant to the manager of the company. In 
this place and subsequently as selling agent 
of the Washington Mills product, Mr. Wood 
won a brilliant reputation for zeal, origi- 
nality and aggressiveness. _ Though still in 



the early twenties, he was recognized by all 
who knew him as a master hand, both as 
manufacturer and as merchant. 

The Washington Mills had a very heavy 
indel)tedness at one time, and it was the 
belief of the trade that such a burden was 
a fatal handicap on any business. But Mr. 
Wood, succeeding Mr. Sampson as manager, 
conquered this formidable problem of mill 
finance, and the Washington Mills became 
firmly established as one of the most effi- 
cient and profitable textile concerns in the 
United States. Mr. Wood then sought a 
still broader field of endeavor and business 
leadership and in 1899 organized the Ameri- 
can Woolen Co., now the largest single 
organization in the wool manufacturing 
industry of America. 

Associated in the formation of the 
American Woolen Company were Mr. Fred- 
erick Ayer, Mr. Charles Fletcher of Provi- 
dence, Mr. James Phillips, Jr., of Fitchburg, 
Mr. Chas. R. Flint and Mr. A. D. Julliard 
of New York. Mr. Ayer was made the first 
president of the American Woolen Company 
and Mr. Wood the treasurer. Later Mr. 
Ayer resigned the presidencv and Mr. Wood 
became the president of the great concern. 

The American Woolen Company now 
owns aljout fifty mills, all but three of them 
located in New England. These include the 
Assabet Mill at Maynard, Mass., the lar- 
gest carded woolen plant in existence, and 
the immense Wood Mill at Lawrence, great- 
est of all worsted manufacturing establish- 
ments. Though a vast and powerful or- 
ganization, with a total product at its 
maximum of upwards of $50,000,000 a year, 
the American Woolen Company is not a 
trust or a monopoly. Its capitalization of 
$40,000,000 of preferred and $20,000,000 
of common stock, or $60,000,000 in all, is 
about one-seventh of the aggregate capitali- 
zation of the 900 woolen and worsted mills 
of this country that manufacture the outer 
clothing of the people, and the ratio of the 
company's output to the aggregate output 
of the whole industry is about the same. 
Lender Mr. Wood's strong conservative 
management, the company has paid a regu- 
lar dividend of 7 per cent on the preferred 




WILLIAM M. WOOD 
PKIiSIDEXT OF THE AMERICAN WOOLEN" COMPANY 



330 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



stock, and has now accumulated a comfort- 
al)le surplus. The New Bedford lad learning 
his first business lessons in the Wamsutta 
counting room has become the head of his 
profession, and the chief factor in a mighty 
manufacturing and selling organization 
whose name is known in every American 
home. 

The American Woolen Company at Law- 
rence and Ma)nard has provided model 
houses for manv of its operatives, and in 
the ecjuipment of all new mill buildings the 
health and comfort of the work-people are 
carefully studied along plans thought out by 
Mr. Wood himself, in which he has always 
taken a direct personal initiative. 

In all of the mills of the American Woolen 
Company the employees, whether native- 
born or foreign-born, are paid substantially 
twice as much money for spinning a pound 
of yarn or weaving a yard of cloth as the 
skilled operatives in the best mills of Great 
Britain or the Continent. Three times be- 
fore the recent strike of 19 12 in Lawrence, 
Mr. Wood had raised the wages of his peo- 
ple without waiting for them to ask him. 
Considering the magnitude of his interests, 
Mr. Wood had been singularly free from 
serious conflicts with labor, until the Law- 
rence trouble reflected the spirit of unrest 
that was pervading the entire country and 
indeed the whole industrial world. 

Mr. Wood has declined many business 
honors and directorships in great banks and 
other corporations because of the pressure of 
his own immediate business. His present offi- 
cial posts are president and director of the 
American Woolen Company; president and 
director of the National & Providence 
Worsted Mills, Providence, R. I. ; president 
and director of the Aver Mills of Lawrence, 
Mass. ; vice-president of the Home Market 
Club, Boston ; vice-president of the Na- 
tional Association of Wool Manufacturers, 
Boston ; president and director of the South- 
ern Illinois Coal & Coke Company, Chicago ; 
director of the Merchants National Bank, 
New Bedford, Mass.; director of the Pierce 
Manufacturing Company and also of Pierce 
Brothers, Limited, New Bedford; director 
of the Rhode Island Insurance Company, 



Providence ; director of the Washington 
Mills; director of the Nyanza Mills, and 
trustee of the Lowell Textile School. 

Early in his business career, Mr. W^Dod 
married a daughter of Frederick Ayer and 
has two sons and two daughters, William 
M. Wood, Jr., Cornelius Ayer Wood, Miss 
Rosalind Wood and Miss Irene Wood. The 
Wood winter home is on Fairfield Street 
in Boston, but the family spends much time 
at a country home in Andover, not far 
from the Lawrence mills, and at Pride's 
Crossing. 

WINSLOW BROS. & SMITH CO. 

The cases are unusually rare in the 
L'nited States where commercial houses and 
industrial plants have remained existent in 
original form and done business in three cen- 
turies. The firm of Winslow Bros., recently 
consolidated with the Smith Co., is in this 
group. The business was established at 
Norwood, Mass., in 1776 — a period when 
conditions were not favorable to immediate 
success or longevity. The nation was in the 
throes of war, labor was scarce and trans- 
portation facilities bad. In spite of these ad- 
verse circumstances the Winslow Bros, put 
up a plant and started the manufacture of 
sheep, calf and kid leather. They were in- 
dustrious and determined and worked hard 
until conditions throughout the country im- 
proved and the business was flourishing. 
The>- rounded out the eighteenth century 
successfully, grew steadily during the nine- 
teenth, and the first quarter of the twentieth 
century finds the concern one of the largest 
in its line. Consolidation was recently ef- 
fected with the Smith Co., producers of 
pulled wool. From the primitive business 
establi-shed over 140 years ago, has grown a 
concern with a capitalization of $500,000, 
and a trade that extends to every state in 
the union and throughout the entire world. 
The present officers of Winslow Bros. & 
Smith Co. are: Frank C. Allen, president; 
Alarcus M. Alder, vice-president, and Philip 
L. Reed, treasurer. The executive offices 
are located at 248 Summer Street, Boston. 




CONVERSE BUILDING 



Situated at the corner of Milk and Pearl Streets. It is a ten-story steel 

frame building with basement. The exterior is of brick 

with stone trimmings. The entrance is 

at 101 Milk Street 



332 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



LEWIS PARKHURST, TREASURER OF GINN & CO. 




LEWIS PARKHURST 



Lewis Parkhurst is an American of the 
old school, the kind of man who has been 
found at the post of danger or responsibility 
throughout the history of this country. 
Born at Dunstable, Massachusetts, July 26, 
1856, his early days were spent on a farm. 
He is seventh in direct descent from Ebe- 
nezer Parkhurst, who came to this country 



from England in about 1690, settling at 
Dunstable. Two of his ancestors were in 
the Revolutionary War, and others did their 
share in the advancement of the struggling 
Republic. His father was Thomas Park- 
hurst, and his mother was Sarah Wright. 
The Wrights also were of the early pioneers. 
The Parkhursts were in moderate circum- 



TIIF. I^OOK OF BOSTON 



^^^ 



stances, and, as an aid to his sujipurt and 
education, Mr. I'arkhurst worked on a farm 
and at various other odd jobs in his youth, 
lie prepared for college at Green Mountain 
Academy, South \\'oodstock, \'ermont, 
teaching school winters. On leaving the 
academy he entered Dartmouth College, and 
was graduated in 1878 with tlie degree of 
A.P). The experience in teaching gained 
in his undergraduate years at Woodstock, 
Reading and Weston, \'ermont, Province- 
town, ^lassachusetts, and Hanover, New 
Hampshire, led him to embrace this pro- 
fession as a definite vocation. Opportunity 
lay near at hand and Mr. Parkhurst served 
as principal of the High Street Grammar 
School in Fitchlnirg, Massachusetts, for two 
years. The next year found him acting in 
a similar capacity in the High School of 
Athol, ^Massachusetts, followed I)y five years 
as principal nf the Winchester (Massachu- 
setts) High School. Mr. Parkhurst has 
li\ed in ^\'inchester since that time, a period 
of thirty-four years. In 1886 he relin- 
quished teaching for business, becoming con- 
nected with the agency department of Ginn 
and Company. His marked ability soon 
brought him to the attention of the firm, and 
he was admitted to partnership in 1888. 
Since that time he has had special charge of 
the luanufacturing and liusiness adminis- 
tration. The Athenaeum Press of Ginn and 
Cfjmpany, said to be one of the l)est 
erjuipped printing establishments in the 
countr\-, has been built and developed in 
accordance with ]\[r. Parkhtirst's carefully 
thought out plans. Mr. Parkhurst has al- 
ways taken a deep personal interest in edu- 
cation, and has devoted much time to help- 
ing various educational institutions. He 
has served on the Winchester school cnni- 
mittee, and was chairman of the committees 
which supervised the construction of the 
Mystic and High School buildings in that 



town. In 1908 he was elected an alunuii 
trustee of Dartnicmth ( Ullcge, with the hun- 
orary degree of A.M. Five years later lie 
was honored with another term, and in 191 5 
made a trtistee for life. He is chairman 
of the college's Committee on Business Ad- 
ministration and has guided its l)usiness 
affairs intu channels that have made the in- 
stitution one of the best organized in the 
United States. Mr. and ]Mrs. Parkhurst 
gave the college its administration building 
— Parkhurst Hall — in 1912. as a memorial 
to their son, A\'ilder, who entered with the 
class of 1907, but died at the l>eginning of 
his sophomore year. !Mr. I'arkhurst is the 
author of "A \'acation on the Nile.'' pub- 
lished in 1913, which recounts the incidents 
of a journey to I\g}'pt. He has been an ex- 
tensive traveler, both for business and pleas- 
tire, having visited every state in the Union, 
Canada, Culia, Mexico and the European 
continent several times. As a representative 
to the General Court in 1908 from the 
twentv-seventh Middlesex District, Mr. 
I'arkhurst served as a member of the joint 
Senate and House Committee on Railroads. 
He has held various other posts of a similar 
character, and has been a leader or sup- 
porter of numerous public undertakings. 
He has acted as a trustee of the Winchester 
Public Library, a mcmtier of the water 
board, chairman of the committee on annual 
appropriations and the committee on im- 
provement of waterways. He is now presi- 
dent of the Repul)lican Club of Massachu- 
setts. Mr. Parkhurst was married at \\'es- 
ton, A'ermont, November 18, 1880, to Miss 
Emma J. Wilder. They have one son living, 
Richard Parkhurst, a member of the se- 
nior class of Dartmouth College. Mr. Park- 
hurst's clubs include the I'niversity, Union, 
Art and City Clubs of i'.oston, the Winches- 
ter Countrv Club and the Megantic F'ish 
and Game Club. 



334 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 




TIMOTHY SMITH 



TIMOTHY SMITH 

Timoth}' Smitli, merchant, was born in 
Eastham, Mass., May 28, 1835, and was 
educated in the public schools and at 

academies at Or- 
leans and North 
Bridgewater, Mass. 
At the age of 
seventeen he be- 
came clerk for a 
mercantile concern 
and after five years 
engagetl in business 
for h i m s e 1 f at 
llardwich and later 
at Roxbury, where 
he has continued 
since August 8, 
1862. He has been 
president of the 
r i m o t h y Smith 
Co., which has conducted a department 
store at 2267 Washington Street since its 
incorporation in 1901, vice-president of the 
Peoples National Bank, member of the New 
England Dry Goods Association, of which 
he was first president, and auditor of the 
Boston City Missionary Society. Mr. 
Smith resides in Roxbury and his office is 
at the corner of Washington and Vernon 
Streets, Roxbury, Boston. 

CHANDLER & CO. 

The firm of Chandler &Co., 151 Tremont 
Street, is one of the few in Boston to ap- 
jjroach the century mark. The business was 
first founded in 1817, by Messrs. Johnson 
& Mayo. The successors to this firm were 
Mayo & Hill, and then George Hill & Co. 
assumed the business, the partners being 
George Hill, Edward \\'yman, Edward \\'. 
Capen and \\'illiam F. Nichols. George 
Hill & Co. was succeeded by Chandler & 
Co., Mr. Hill withdrawing and the business 
being- continued by John Chandler and the 
remaining partners. In 1887, the business 
passed into the hands of William H. Capen, 
William H. Flanders and Frank W. 
\\'_\-man. Mr. Capen and Mr. Flanders 



dying, the firm of Chandler «S: Co. was in- 
corporated in 1905 with Frank W. Wyman, 
president and treasurer, and Charles F. 
Bacon, vice-president. The business was 
originally established to cater to the high- 
est class of trade, and in this regard the 
house has never deviated from the original 
intention during any part of its long and 
successful career. Chandler & Co. carry 
the finest lines of dry goods, women's ap- 
parel, and carpets and rugs, and the entire 
service and environment shows the dignity 
and refinement that conies through long 
years of service. 



In the manufacture of books, Boston has 
always been the foremost American city. 
Much business has come to it in this industry 
through its literar}- prestige. 

PHILIP A. GREEN 

Philip A. Green, treasurer, director and 
general manager of the William C. Jones 
Co., was born in New York City, October 
6, 1882, and was 
educated in the pub- 
lic schools of Bos- 
ton. He served a 
thorough a]i])ren- 
ticeship in the cot- 
ton waste l)usiness. 
in office work in | 
the mill and as a 
salesman on the 
road, before he 
reached his present | 
important position. 

He is a member 
of the B el m o n t 
Country Club, is a - 
thirty - second de- ■'""•"' '^- '^'^'^^'^ 

gree Mason and a Shriner. 

The William C. Jones, Ltd., was organ- 
ized in England forty-two years ago. The 
Boston l)ranch was opened here in 1908 and 
incorporated in 19 14. Cotton waste only is 
handled and the English house has mills 
and offices at Manchester, while the Boston 
Company maintains a mill at New Bedford. 
The offices are at 200 Summer Street. 




THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



PATRICK A. O'CONNELL 

Patrick A. O'Cnimell, wlm is j)r(iniinent 
in the social and business circles of Boston, 
was born Februarv 13. 187-', in Lawrence, 




PATRICK A. O CONM 1.1 

Mass. He was educated in the jniblic 
schools of the city of his birth and Ijegan 
his business career with a dry goods house 
in Lawrence, and came to Boston over 
twenty years ago. His first association in 
this city was with William Eilene Sons & 
Co., of which he l)ecame vice-president. He 
Avas later treasurer and general manager of 
James A. Houston d)., and eventually 
bought the controlling interest in the busi- 
ness of the E. T. Slattery Co., of which he 
wns made president and treasurer, and is 
now the sole owner. In addition to this 
interest, Mr. O'Connell is a director of 
Andrew Ryan, Inc., of New York City. He 
is a member of the Board of Investment of 
the Union Institute for Savings and of the 
Faculty of Business Administration of Bos- 
ton L'niversitx', where he assists in laying out 
the courses and lectures on business organ- 
ization and s|)ecial topics <in management, 
lie has also contributed articles on these 



subjects to various tratle publications. He 
is president of the New Englantl Dry Goods 
Association and holds membership in the 
Economic, Clover, Boston City and E.x- 
change Clubs, the Boston Athletic Associa- 
tion, Boston Chamber of Connnerce, Young 
Men's Catholic Association and the Catholic 
L'nion of Boston. He is a Democrat in 
politics and was formerly treasurer of the 
Democratic Town Connnittee of Brookline. 
Mr. C)'Connell was chairman of the com- 
mittee having charge of the entertainment 
of the Earl and Marchioness of Alierdeen 
when thev visited Boston, and the complete- 
ness of ever\- detail on that occasion was in 
a large measure due to Mr. O'Connell's 
ability to organize and direct. 

L. P. HOLLANDER & CO. 

The business of L. P. FLillander & Co., 
dealers in dry goods and men and women's 
apparel, was established in 1848 by M. T. 
Hollander. Several stores in the business 
section were occupied until 1886, when the 
movement to Boylston Street was made in 
order to be nearer to the residential section. 
In 1 89 1 and igoo two other stores were 
added to the present premises, which in- 
cludes the buildings from 203 to 216 Boyl- 
ston Street, a frontage of 100 feet extend- 
ing through to Park Square. In 1890 a 
branch was opened in New York City, and 
the firm now occupies the premises 550-52 
Fifth Avenue, a large eight-story building 
which it erected in 191 1. In addition to 
the New York and Boston houses, summer 
branches are maintained at Newport and 
Watch Hill. R. I., Magnolia, Mass., Bar 
Harbor and York Harbor, Me., and winter 
branches in Santa Barbara, Cal.. and Palm 
Beach, Fla. Mr. Louis P. Hollander was 
for many years senior member of the firm, 
and since his death the business has been 
conilucted by the surviving partners, T. C. 
Hollander and B. F. Pitman. 



The Metropolitan Park System has a total 
area of 10,427 acres, not including a large 
acreage owned b\' nuniici])alities and given 
over for care and control. 



336 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




JOHN HOPEWELL (dECEASEd) 



also treasurer 
a director of 
Sanford Mills 
a director of 
Reading Rub- 
Co. and the 



JOHN HOPEWELL 

John Hopewell, head of the well-known 
firm of L. C. Chase & Co., was born at 
Greenfield, Mass., February 2, 1845, and 

was educated at 
the public schools. 
He was a book- 
keeper and account- 
ant in early life, 
and after becoming 
a salesman for L. 
C. Chase & Co. be- 
came head of that 
house in 1888. He 
was 
and 
the 
and 
the 
ber 

First National 
Bank. Mr. Hopewell was a Re]niblican in 
politics, and had been a director of the Home 
Market Club since its organization. He was 
honored with many positions of trust by his 
party and was a member of the Legislature 
in 1 89 1. He held membership in the Bos- 
ton Merchants Association, the Algonquin 
and Boston Art Clubs, Cambridge Club of 
Cambridge. Brae Burn Country and Hunne- 
well Clubs of Newton. He was also a 
member of the executive committee of the 
National Association of Wool Manufactur- 
ers. Mr. Hopewell died suddenly in Wash- 
ington, D. C, March 27, 1916. 

GEORGE W. WHEELWRIGHT 

In the Spring of 1861, George W. Wheel- 
wright, Jr., began his business career in his 
father's paper warehouse at 6 Water Street, 
Boston. Five years later he was admitted 
to partnership in the business under the firm 
name of George W. Wheelwright & Son. 
Charles S. Wheelwright, a brother, became 
a member of the firm in 1868, l)ut retired 
in 1873. Following the death of the elder 
Wheelwright in 1879, the George W^. Wheel- 
wright Paper Co. was incorporated in Jan- 
uary, 1880, and George W. ^^'heelwright 



became its first president, retaining the posi- 
tion until January, 1914, when he became 
Chairman of the Board of Directors. The 
mills of the company are located at Fitch- 
burg, Leominster and ^\'heel\vright, Mass. 
George W. WHieelwright, Sr., received his 
early training in the paper business with the 
firm of Nash & Heywood, Boston. He 
removed to Baltimore in 1834, where he 
engaged in business under the firm name of 
Turner & Wheelwright and later Turner, 
Wlieelwright & Mudge. He returned to 
Boston in 1845 'is purchasing partner of the 
Baltimore firm, but retired in 1848 to join 
Peter C. Jones in the firm of Jones & W'heel- 
wright. They had a paper warehouse on 
State Street and a mill in Watertown, Mass., 
and upon the dissolution of the partnership 
in 1853, Mr. W'heelwright continued to 
manufacture paper, while Mr. Jones took 
over the store business. 



Metropolitan Boston comprises thirty- 
nine cities and towns, each of which is under 
a separate municipal government and all are 
within a radius of thirteen miles of Boston 
Citv Hall. 



PARKER, WILDER & COMPANY 

The firm of Parker, Wilder & Co., deal- 
ers in woolen, worsted and cotton fabrics, 
was organized in 1820 by Isaac Parker 
and Jonas M. Melville, under the name of 
Isaac Parker & Co. The present members 
of the firm are S. Parker Bremer, Samuel 
Rindge, George A. Adam, William D. Jud- 
son and Alfred B. Wade. The business, 
which was originally located at 60 Broad 
Street, is now contlucted at 4 Winthrop 
Square, where sixty persons are employed. 
The annual output of the house has in- 
creased twenty-five per cent, in recent years 
and now amounts to $10,000,000, the prod- 
uct being sold all over the United States 
and in foreign countries. 



THE BOOK (W BOSTON 



,1^7 



ALBERT D. HOWLETT COMl'AXY 



The AIl)ert D. Howlett Co., one of tlie 
largest firms in the painting and decorating 
line in the country, was organized under the 
laws of A'lassachusetts by Albert D. Howlett 
in 1902. Mr. Howlett had previously been 
associated with the C}tus T. Clarke Co., as 
vice-president and general manager. When 
he became president nf tlie new concern he 



the management (if the ciimpan\- l.)elieving 
that many a beautiful l)uilding and many 
architectural effects are spoiled by the im- 
])r()per application of paint. That they have 
l^een successful in securing the best results 
is proven by the fact that they have worked 
with some (jf the most noted architects and 
engineers in the C(iuntr\-. Some idea of the 




ALBERT D. HOWLETT COMPANY 



brought to the position a thoniugh knowl- 
edge of every branch of the business. The 
company employs from one hundred to three 
hundred painters at different periods of the 
year, and does not depart from its specialty 
of interior and exterior painting, decorating 
and hard-wood finishing. Its field is the 
entire United States, and in additinn u> the 
executive oftice at 40 State Street, it main- 
tains a permanent office at 507 Eifth Av- 
enue, New York City. The Albert D. How- 
lett Co. pays the closest attention to "the 
grooming of a home," and every effort is 
made to secure harmonious color schemes. 



character of the compan_\-'s work and the 
extent of the territory covered can ])e gath- 
ered from a partial list of the work done. 
This includes, the Boston City Club, New 
England Trust Co., Boston Safe Deposit 
and Trust Co., Boston Athena-um, Oliver 
Ditson Building, Boston : and the Charles H. 
Ditson P.uilding, New York City; the Waitt 
& Bond factory, the Rockefeller Institute, 
New York City : the Naumkeag Cotton Mill, 
Salem, Mass.; Hotel Stanley, Estes Park, 
Colorado; Hotel Kimball, Springfield, 
Mass. ; Travelers Insurance Building, Hart- 
ford, Conn. ; Nurses' Home, Albany, N. Y. ; 



33,S< 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



W. H. McElwain Factor}-, Manchester, 
N. H. ; Salem Five Cent Bank, Salem, 
Mass.; State Armory, Springfield, Mass., 
and palatial residences at Rye, N. Y. ; 
Tarrytown, N. Y. ; Braintree, Mass., and 
Syosset, Long Island, etc. There is no 
point in the United States too far away 
for the Albert D. Howlett Co. to 
cover, and no contract too large to be 
successfully handled. The Itest workmen 
only are employed and the entire work is 
personally supervised by the most competent 
artists, so that the smallest detail, which 
sometimes appears unimportant to the lav 
luind, receives careful attention in order to 
produce pleasing, restful anil harmonious 
•effects. 



Strangers are attracted to Boston through 
its homelike atmosphere, the civility of its 
•citizens and the courtesy of its tradespeople. 

THE PUREOXIA COMPANY 

The Pureoxia Company, which manufac- 
tures high grade beverages and makes a 
speciality of ginger ale, was organized in 
1899 with a capital of $100,000. The plant 
is located at no Norway Street, and is 
equipped with the latest improved machin- 
■ery for the production of goods of absolute 
purity, under the most improved hygienic 
conditions. The best materials and distilled 
water only are used, and the reputation of 
the I'ureoxia products has largely increased 
the company's sales during recent vears, the 
trade territory now covering the entire New 
England States. Speedy autos are used for 
cjuick delivery in Boston and the nearby 
points. The entire equipment suggests clean- 
liness of the highest order, and the sanitary 
production and excellence of service have 
made many private families constant users 
of the goods. 

The products of the Pureoxia Company 
include ginger ale, flavored beverages, dis- 
tilled water, mineral waters and water dis- 
tilling apparatus. The officers are : Harry 
A. Edgerly, President and General Man- 
ager; Joseph B. Crocker, Treasurer; and 
Arthur L. Despeaux, Assistant Treasurer. 



THE ATLANTIC WORKS 

Boston's access to the sea has been respon- 
sible for much of the city's growth and 
prosperity. It has played its part in the 
commercial development of New England 
as well as of the city itself. The harbor led 
to the first settlement and has been perma- 
nent in its influence in centering upon its 
shores some of the greatest industries of the 
new world. The business of the manufac- 
ture of marine goods has always been an 
extensive feature of the city's industries. 
The shipping and transportation interests 
which have their home in Boston have natu- 
rall}' created a demand for sea-going ma- 
terial, which has been fully met by a number 
of responsible companies that have grown 
as the demand developed. 

The Atlantic Works, builders of marine 
engines and boilers, was established in Bos- 
ton sixty-three years ago by five mechanics, 
Abishai Miller, Oilman Joslin, Mark 
Googins, James A. Maynard and \\'illiam C. 
Hibbard. The organizers had very little 
capital, yet despite this handicap, the works 
became, within ten vears, the leading con- 
cern in its line in Boston, and has main- 
tained that position since. 

The plant occupies about five acres of 
ground fronting on Border, Maverick and 
New Streets in East Boston, and the cor- 
poration also controls the East Boston Dry 
Dock Co. plant, which adjoins it and 
occupies about six acres. 

In addition to the construction of marine 
engines and boilers, the Works make general 
steamship repairs and employ between three 
hundred and fifty and fnur hundred luen. 

The trade territory covered is wholly 
domestic and mostly local, and the annual 
turnover amounts to about five hundred 
thousantl dollars. 

The present officers of the company are : 
Fred McOuesten, president; Alfred E. Cox, 
treasurer and general manager; Edward P. 
Robinson, superintendent ; and Joseph M. 
Robinson, purchasing agent. The board of 
directors is composed of these four and 
\\'illiam B. loslin. 



1'HF, BOOK OP^ BOS'l'OX 



3,^9 



HER.MAN L. BEAL 

Herman L. Beal, presideiu and irca.snrtT 
of the P'oster Rubber Co., was l)orn in Bos- 
ton, Mass., November 14, 1862. He was 




HHKMAN L. BL.\L 



educated in the public schools of Boston and 
at the Bryant & Stratton Commercial Col- 
lege. The Foster Rubber C<ini])aii\-, of 
which Mr. Beal is president, manufacture^ 
a large line of rubber goods, all of which 
are widel\- known and soUl throughout the 
entire country. These include "Cats Paw 
Rubber Heels," "Foster Rubber Heels," the 
"Tred-air Heel Cushion" cane and crutch 
ti])s. and a full line of other sjjecialties. Mr. 
Beal's i)lace of business is at 103 Federal 
Street, and his home at nS/i Common- 
wealth Avenue. He is a Republican in ])iili- 
tics, but has never held or sought jiublic 
office. He is a member of the Societv of 
Colonial Wars, the I'loston C"haniber of 
(-"ommerce, the Republican Club of .Mas.sa- 
chnsctts, the Home Market Clul>, the lioston 
Athletic .\ssociation. Engineers Club, the 
Wo, idlaud (lolf Club and the Cliambcr of 
Commerce of .\nierica, and inanv other 
social and fraternal nrganizations. 



CAPT. FRANCIS HAWKS APPLETON 

Cajitain b'rancis 1 lawks Appleton, presi- 
dent of the F. 11. .\]ipleton & Son, Inc.. 
manufacturers of reclaimed rubber, was 
born in Jersey City, .\ugust 4, 1854. He 
was educated at the public schools and at 
the Pennington Seminary, Pennington. N. J. 
Upon the completion of his schooling he be- 
came a salesman for the Murjjhy Varnish 
Co., of Newark, N. J., and was finally made 
manager of the Boston branch of that com- 
pany. Flaving his own jimcess for the rec- 
lamation of rubber, he estaljlished the pres- 
ent business in 1898, and now has a factory 
at Franklin, Mass., with offices at 185 Sum- 
mer Street, Boston. Captain Appleton en- 
joys the distinction of having been twice re- 
ceived by King George V of England. On 
the first occasion he was one of the three 
delegates who visited Marlborough House to 
ainiounce to the king his election to the An- 
cient and Honoral)le Artillery Companw The 
king acce])te(l the courtesy and became suc- 




CAHT. FRANCIS HAWKS APPLETON 

cessor to his f;ither, b'.dward \"ll, in honor- 
ary nienibcrshii). ' I*-' ^^as again received by 
the king in lyij. when tlie Ancients visited 



340 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Buckingham Palace. The king inspected 
the company which Captain Appleton com- 
manded, and the two were photographed 
side by side. Captain Appleton was mar- 
ried, September 30, 1874, to Ida C. Cook 
of New York City, and they have one son, 
Francis H. Appleton, Jr., who is associated 
with his father in business, and a grandson, 
Francis H. Appleton, 3rd. Captain Apple- 
ton is a 32nd degree Mason and a member 
of the Aleppo Temple. He also holds mem- 
bership in the Chamlier of Commerce, the 
Algonciuin Club, the Point Shirley Club, of 
which he is president, the Boston City Club 
and the Boston Athletic Association. 

BIRGER GUSTAF A. ROSENTWIST 

B. G. A. Rosentwist, Royal Vice-Consul 
of Sweden at Boston, was born in Bjuf, 
Sweden, April 26, 1868. He has studied 

at the Royal Insti- 
tute of Technology, 
Stockholm, S w e - 
den, and the Uni- 
versity of Gottin- 
gen, Germany. Mr. 
Rosentwist is a de- 
scend a n t in the 
eighth generation 
from John Twist, 
of English ances- 
try, who was born 
in Germany in 1638 
and settled in Swe- 
den. The progeni- 
tor of the family 
was ennobled by 
King Karl XI of Sweden in 1695 and the 
name changed to its present form. Mr. 
Rosentwist is a chemist and is now a mem- 
ber of the firm of Rosentwist & Corner, 
importers of and dealers in dyestuffs and 
chemicals, at 26 India Square. He is con- 
nected with several other commercial con- 
cerns. He was decorated Knight of Royal 
Order of Vasa ist Class by the late King 
Oscar II of Sweden in 1907. He is a 
member of the Board of Directors of the 
Swedish Chamber of Commerce of the 
U. S. A., New York, American-Scandi- 




BIRGER G. A. ROSENTWIST 



navian Society, the Swedish Charitable So- 
ciety, Masonic fraternities, Boston City 
Club, Algoncjuin, Engineers, Boston Yacht, 
Hoosic-Wliisick Country Clubs and Bos- 
ton Athletic Association of Boston and the 
Cityklubben of Stockholm, Sweden. He is 
also Honorary President of the Swedish 
Charitable Society. 



In the Granary Burying-ground between 
Beacon and Park Streets are the tombs and 
graves of governors of the Colony and Com- 
monwealth, and of Samuel Adams, James 
Otis, John Hancock, Paul Revere, Peter 
Faneuil, the parents of Benjamin Franklin, 
•with many others of distinction or interest. 

JOHN JOYCE 

Vice-President of the Gillette Safety 
Razor Company 

In the early days of the development of 
the Gillette Safety Razor, progress was 
much hampered by the lack of funds to 
conduct the necessary experiments. After 
many discouraging experiences, when it 
seemed at times as though the undertaking 
must be abandoned, the inventor, Mr. King 
C. Gillette, was so fortunate as to meet and 
interest in his idea Mr. John Joyce of An- 
dover, Mass. 

Mr. Joyce was immediately convinced 
that there was a wonderful field for an 
article such as this, and the outgrowth of 
his belief was the enterprise that is now 
capitalized for thirteen million dollars and 
whose ramifications extend the world over. 
It requires more than an ordinary quality 
of courage to capitalize an idea to the ex- 
tent of mau}^ thousand dollars, but so firm 
was Mr. Joyce in his belief that the article 
was practical and would revolutionize the 
tedious process of shaving, he never doubted 
as to its viltimate success. 

That the Gillette Safety Razor is a suc- 
cess is "known the world over," but com- 
paratively little is known of the man whose 
foresight and business acumen is largely 
responsible for the marvelous business that 
has been Ijuilt up from this invention. 



'I'llI-: IU)()K OF BOSTON 



,U1 



JEROME JONES 

From an obscure clerkship in a ccmntry 
store, Jenmie Jones has risen to tlie presi- 
(lenc\- of tlie Jones, McDuffee i^ Strattim 




JEROME JONES 

Co., one of the largest and nmst prominent 
crockery, glass and chinaware firms in the 
United States. He was l)orn at Athol, 
Worcester County, Mass., October 13, 1837, 
and after being educated in the public 
schools became a clerk in a store and post 
office in Orange. Upon coming to Boston 
in 1853, he served an apprenticeship with 
Otis Norcross, and after receiving a thor- 
ough training, filled positions of constantly 
increasing importance which resulted in his 
being admitted to partnership at the age of 
twenty-four. He was the European buyer 
for fifteen years. Upon the retirement of 
Mr. Norcross to become Mayor of Boston, 
in 1868, the firm became Howland & Jones, 
and upon Mr. Howland's death in 1871 the 
present partnership was formed, since being 
incorporated. During his business career 
Mr. Jones has been interested as director 
and vice-president with several fin;uicial in- 
stitutions, and held menibershi]) in many 
trade associations. He was one of the orig- 



inal meml)ers of the New England Tariff 
Reform League, a member of the Thursday 
Club of Brookline, and also holds member- 
ship in the I'nion. .\rt, Country, Algonquin 
and Unitarian Clul)S of Boston, and the Bos- 
ton Chamljer of Commerce. He is a di- 
rector of the Boston Safe Dejxjsit and Trust 
Co., and vice-president of the Home Savings 
Bank and honorary chairman of the Mari- 
time Comnuttee of the Chamber of Com- 
merce. 

GEORGE T. LEIGH 

George T. Leigh, vice-president of the 
John Leigh Co., contractors and dealers in 
cotton waste with a large plant at 241 A 
Street, South Boston, was born in I\Ian- 
chester, Englantl, in 1884. He was edu- 
cated in England and came to the United 
States to look over the business of John 
Leigh, Ltd., the i)arent house. Eight years 
ago when the Boston branch was started 
he took up his residence jiermanently here 
and became vice-president and principal 




GEORGE T. LEIGH 



owner of the comjiany which was incorpo- 
rated in 1912 with executive offices at 200 
Summer Street. He is a member of the 



342 



THE BOOK OF ROSTOX 



Boston City Club, the Boston Athletic As- 
sociation, the Eastern Yacht Club, the Que- 
quechan Club of Fall River, the National 
Association of Cotton Manufacturers and 
the Chamber of Commerce. John Leigh, 
Ltd., the parent house in England, was estab- 
lished by John Leigh, who is Chairman of 
the Board of Directors, with John Leigh, 
Jr., and George T. Leigh as directors. The 
concern is the largest dealer in cotton waste 
in the world, its markets extending to nearly 
every country. The elder Leigh started in 
business forty-five years ago in Oldham, 
England. He possessed excellent executive 
ability and keen business judgment, and 
under his careful and wise guidance the 
small business expanded until the annual 
sales now run into millions of dollars, while 
the house owns, controls and operates many 
large cotton mills throughout England. 
The English house sells its product all over 
the world, while the Boston firm confines 
its efforts to the United States and Canada. 

GURNEY HEATER 
MANUFACTURING COMPANY 

The company was organized under the 
Massachusetts Laws in 1884. Its executive 
offices have always been located on Frank- 
lin Street, in Boston, and the growth of the 
business has necessitated placing branch of- 
fices and distributors throughout the com- 
mercial centres of the United States, and 
also in various countries of the world. 
The Gurney Company is the pioneer in the 
manufacture of steam and hot water heat- 
ing apparatus in the United States, and its 
product has become a household word and 
recognized as standard throughout the coun- 
try. It has always been the effort of the 
company to be the leader in the industry, 
and much of its marked success is attribu- 
table to the high standard adopted and to 
the use of only the best grades of material 
wrought by the highest skilled labor for 
which New England is famous. The plant, 
covering twenty-three acres, is located at 
Franiingham, Mass., where every modern 
device for the making of its products is in- 
stalled. The officers are : Edward Gurney, 



president ; William T. Isaac, vice-president 
and general manager, and Alfred G. Merser, 
secretary and treasurer. Mr. Isaac, the ac- 




WILLIAM T. ISAAC 



tive head, has been connected with the com- 
pany for the past twenty-four years, filling 
the various offices in the organization up to 
that now held by him. 




FAIRBAMKS Mouse, OEOHAM 



nil. <U.U lAlKUANks. UOl'SE, DEUHAM, BUILT IN 1650 

BY JO.NATHAN FAIRBANKS, AND REACHED BY 

THE BAY STATE STREET RAILWAY COMPANY 

One of the oldest houses in the country 
and previous to 1896, when it was purchased 
bv Mrs. J. Amory Codman and daughter of 
Boston, it had always been owned by a 
Fairbanks. 



HI 



1^,()()K OF BOSTON' 



U,^ 



WILLIAM WIILFALAN 



Emint'iit alike as manufacturer and nier- 
cliant, Mr. William AMiitman of Boston has 
wiekled an extraordinary influence in the 
upbuilding nt the great textile industries of 
the Commonwealth. .Mthough for more than 
sixty years a resident of Massachusetts and 
attached to the State by the memory of his 
ancestors and the earliest famil\- traditions. 
Mr. AMiitman is a native of the town of 
Round Hill, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia. 
He was born there ^lav q, ]S4_', the son of 
John Whitman, and a descentiant in the 
eighth generation of the pioneer John \Vhit- 
man, who came from England prior to 1638 
and settled at Weymouth, near Boston. Mr. 
Whitman now owns a part of tiie original 
homestead granted to the first John Whit- 
man bv the town of W evmouth in 1642. Mr. 
William Whitman's great-grandfather, also 
named John WHiitman, was born in Massa- 
chusetts and was one of those who left that 
State and went to Nova Scotia to take pos- 
session of the fruitful lands of Acadia. 
There he settled near Annapolis u])on a 
farm, which has ever since remained in the 
Whitman family. On his mother's side, also, 
Mr. Whitman is of old Massachusetts an- 
cestry. His mother was Rebecca Cutler, a 
direct descendant of Ebenezer Cutler, a con- 
spicuous Loyalist, whose attachment to King 
George was the reason of his banishment 
during the War of the Revolution and his 
settlement in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1778. 

William Whitman spent the years of his 
childhood at Round Hill and in the neigh- 
boring town of Annai)olis, being brought u|) 
in the faith of the Church of England and 
actjuiring the rudiments of education in his 
father's home, a small country schodl and 
the .Annapolis academy. At the age of eleven, 
however, his school days were over, for cir- 
cumstances compelled him to start out to 
make his own \\a\' in the w<jrld. 

It has often happened that lack of wealth, 
early years of struggle and scant educatic^nal 
advantages have proved helpful to young 
men of indomitable energv. It was so in the 
case of ,\lr. Whitman. Lie came of a long- 
lived race on both sides of his family. He 



was endowed with a roliust i)liy>ical c<jnsti- 
tution. He had a natural aptitude for figures. 
He acquired earl\- a good legible handwrit- 
ing, an accomplishment which in business 
w ill never lie out of date. The early age at 
which he was thrown upcjn his own re- 
sources developed in him that self-reliance 
which has been a conspicuous quality 
throughout his life. He derived from his 
vouthful training antl from his honest. God- 
fearing ancestors those principles of l)usi- 
ness righteousness which are exemjilified in 
his career. 

It was, therefore, not altogether without 
an equipment that he left home May 13, 1854, 
to enter the office of a wholesale dry goods 
store in St. John, New Brunswick ; but two- 
vears later, dissatisfied with the limited op- 
portunities of St. John, he came to Boston 
and without the aid of friends or influence, 
this lad of fourteen secured a positioi: as 
entry clerk in the firm of James M. Beebe, 
Richardson & Company, successors to James 
M. Beebe, Morgan & Company, which was 
at that time one of the largest mercantile 
houses with a reputation which had spread 
bevond Annapolis and had attracted the am- 
bitious youth before he left Nova Scotia. 
In this house, Mr. Whitman remained eleven 
years, passing through the various depart- 
ments bv successive promotions until the 
firm was dissolved. 

In 1867 Mr. A\'hitman became associated 
with R. M. Bailey & Company, as Treasurer 
of the Arlington W^oolen Mills of Lawrence, 
of which Mr. Bailey was President and his 
firm the selling agent. In i860 Air. Whit- 
man resigned his ])ost as Treasurer because 
of dissatisfaction with the management and 
purchased an interest in a woolen null at 
Ashland, N. H., where he jnirsued the man- 
ufacture of goods on his own account, but 
when, six months later, the Arlington i\lil)s 
were reorganized, Mr. Whitman was asked 
t(» resume the position which he had relin- 
(|uished. 

Thus, from 1867 — with the exception of 
this brief interval of half a year — Mr. Whit- 
man has been continuousl}' associated with 



344 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



the Arlington Mills, nntil 1902 as Treasurer, 
and from that date to 19 13 as President. 
Although he has resigned the presidenc)-, 
Mr. Whitman remains an active director. 
He is everywhere recognized as the chief 
factor in the development of the Arlington 
Mills from a small concern with scant cap- 
ital and poor ecjuipment into one of the larg- 
est textile organizations in the world. His 
energy and foresight have enabled the mills 
to anticipate the changes which have taken 
place in manufacturing and to adapt their 
resources and methods to every emergency. 
During Mr. Whitman's connection with the 
Arlington Mills, capitalization has grown 
from $150,000 to $8,000,000 and the num- 
ber of employees from 300 to 7,200. The 
mills, which are all within one yard, contain 
about sixty-eight acres of floor space and 
are among the finest examples of mill archi- 
tecture in existence. They have a capacity 
for consuming 1,250,000 pounds of wool 
each week, which is ecjuivalent to the fleeces 
of 33,000 sheep every day. While wool is 
the principal material manufactured, the 
cotton mills of the corporation constmie 
annually 12,000 bales of cotton. 

This remarkable development of the Ar- 
lington Mills under Mr. Whitman's man- 
agement measures the greater part of his 
business life and also the development of the 
American worsted industry, to which he has 
so largely contributed. His has been, to a 
notable degree, the work of a pioneer and 
creator, for nnich of the growth of the wors- 
ted industry has been in fields which were 
untouched when Mr. Whitman first applied 
his abilities to the manufacture. How re- 
cent, how motlern, is all this wonderful de- 
velopment may be indicated by the fact that 
the man whose mind for so many years has 
controlled the Arlington Mills can recall the 
period when the clothing of his family and 
the community in which he lived was woven 
on the hand-loom from yarn spun on the 
old-fashioned spinning-wheel. 

During the past twenty years, Mr. Whit- 
man has influenced the construction in 
Massachusetts of several large new mills, 
for which he acts as managing director. In 
1902 and 1905 the Whitman Mills, and in 



1903 and 1908 the Manomet Mills were 
built at New Bedford. The former organ- 
ization, while IVIr. Whitman was president, 
had a capitalization of $1,500,000, and pos- 
sessed 132,000 spindles and 3,400 looms, 
employed in the production of cotton cloths; 
the latter organization, with $3,000,000 cap- 
ital, has 203,000 spindles, its product being 
confined to cotton yarns. The Nonquitt 
Spinning Company, built in 1906 and 1910, 
capitalized at $2,400,000, has 160,000 spin- 
dles. This company also confines its prod- 
uct to cotton A'arns. The Nashawena Mills 
of New Bedford, organized in 1909, with a 
capitalization of $3,000,000, have 163,000 
spindles and 3,800 looms for the manufac- 
ture of cotton cloths. Mr. Whitman also 
influenced in 1910 the building of the Mon- 
omac Spinning Company of Lawrence, for 
the manufacture of worsted and merino 
yarns. This corporation has 43,000 spin- 
dles, with a capital of $1,200,000. Mr. 
Whitman is president of the Hoosac 
Worsted Mills at North Adams, Mass., and 
the Naquog Worsted Mills of West Rut- 
land, Mass., and he is a director of the Hope 
Webbing Company of Pawtucket, R. I., and 
the Calhoun Mills, of Calhoun Falls, S. C. 

In 19 1 6 Mr. Whitman organized two 
more enterprises, the Katama Mills of 
South Lawrence, Mass., manufacturing tire 
duck and other heavy fabrics, with a capital 
of $500,000 and 300 looms, and the Belle- 
ville Warehouse Company, with $250,000 
capital, established to maintain in New Bed- 
ford a large warehouse with a capacity of 
50,000 bales of cotton. Of this latter con- 
cern Mr. Whitman is the president, and he 
is a director of the Katama Mills. 

The mill organizations under Mr. ^^■hit- 
man's management have, altogether, a cap- 
ital of more than $19,000,000, operate 
nearly 800,000 spindles and produce each 
year 52,000,000 pounds of yarn and 
68,000,000 yards of cloth. 

In 1887 Mr. Whitman l^ecame a member 
of the firm of Harding. Colby & Company, 
commission merchants of Boston and New 
York, who were at that time the selling 
agents of the Arlington Mills. When the 
firm was dissolved two years later by the 




WILLIAM UIIITMAN 
ONIC OF AMICKICa's FOREMOST MKX IX TIIK TFXTlI.l. IMHSIKV 



346 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



death of Mr. Coll)y, Mr. W'liitman l)ecame 
the managing partner in the tinn of Hard- 
ing, \\'liitnian & Company, wliich succeeded 
it. Upon tlie termination of this partnership 
in 1909, the business was taken over by a 
new firm, ^^'ilHam Whitman & Company, 
of which ]\[r. Whitman was the senior and 
managing jmrtner. Tlie firm was incorpo- 
rated in 1913 with the title "WiUiam Whit- 
man Cijmpany, Inc.," the capital stock of 
which has recently lieen increased to $4,000,- 
000 common and $1,000,000 preferred. ^Ir. 
Whitman is the presiilent of the corporation, 
which has its ofifices in the leading cities of 
the country. The growth of its business 
has been commensurate \\ ith the remarkable 
growth of the Arlington 'Mills. 

Although all these years an exceedingly 
active man of business, Mr. ^^'hitman has 
found opportunity to take an alert interest 
in the larger aspect of the industrial devel- 
opment of the countr}- and in questions of 
public policy, so far as they have a bearing 
on this development. He has been for many 
years a prominent member of the National 
Association of Wool Manufacturers, the 
oldest organization of its class in the United 
States. In 1888 Mr. Whitman was honored 
by election to the presidency of the Associa- 
tion and was re-elected each year until in 
1894 the stress of business compelled him to 
retire. After an interval of ten years, dur- 
ing which period he served on the Execu- 
tive Committee, he was in 1904 again elected 
president of the National Association, and 
continued in office until 191 1, when he 
declined a renomination. Mr. Whitman is 
also a member of the National Association 
of Cotton Manufacturers and of the Ameri- 
can Cotton Manufacturers' Association. 

On the reorganization of the directorate 
of the Equitable Life Insurance Society of 
the United States, one of the largest institu- 
tions of trust in the world, Mr. Whitman, 
in June, 1905, was elected a tlirector as a 
representative of the policy-holders of the 
society, and he served until his resignation 
in 1913. 

Although Mr. \\'hitman has never held 
public office, he has always been identified 
with the Republican party and has made an 



impress upon the industrial-economic and 
trade and tariff history of the nation. He 
is an acknowledged authority in tarifif 
matters, particularly in connection with the 
wool and cotton manufacture, and his advice 
has repeatedly been sought on the wisdom 
and effect of proposed tariff legislation. 
Broad and thorough studv, as well as large 
personal experience, have given weight to 
his views and have enabled him on many 
occasions, by speech and brief, to render 
valualile service to the textile manufactur- 
ers of America. ]\Ir. Whitman has labored 
indefatigaljly for the welfare of the com- 
merce and industries of ^Massachusetts and 
of the country at large. He has prepared 
and published papers on economic themes, 
which have attracted marked attention and 
have been widely circulated. These works 
are : "Free Raw Materials as Related to 
New England Industries," "Free Coal — 
\\'ould It Give New England ^lanufactur- 
ers Cheaper Fuel?" "Some Reasons Why 
Commercial Reciprocity Is Impracticable," 
"Objections to Reciprocity on Constitu- 
tional and Practical Grounds," "The Tariff 
Revisionist, an Example of the Nature of 
His Demand," 1906, "What are the Pro- 
tected Industries," 1908. Mr. Whitman's 
style is clear, concise and forcible. It is the 
more telling because it is not marked by any 
effort at rhetorical or literary effect. He 
speaks or writes upon a business or public 
question because he has something to say — - 
facts to communicate or convictions to 
express. He says what he has to say with 
directness and pungency, and when he is 
through he stops. His statements of facts 
are unimpeachable and his arguments are 
logical and hammer-like. 

Mr. Whitman has widespread affiliations 
with the business and social life of New 
England. He is a meml)er of the Arkwright 
Clul), a life member of the American Acad- 
emy of Political and Social Science, the 
Boston Young Men's Christian Union, the 
Boston Press Club, the ^Massachusetts His- 
torical Society, the Nova Scotia Historical 
Society, the Society for the Preservation of 
New England Antiquities and the National 
Geographic Society. He is a member also 



THK I^OOK OF BOS'l'OX 



,U/ 



of tlie Uiiinii dull, the ]'>(l^tllll riianilic-r of 
Commerce, the Commercial Chih, the Jlos- 
tonian Society, tlie lirookline Historical 
Society, the lUinker Hill ]\[omiment Asso- 
ciation, the Eastern Yacht Cluli. the Ciiuntr\- 
Club of ]5rookIine, the Home Alarket Club, 
the Norfolk Club and other ors^anizations. 
]'>ut though Mr. \\'hitm;in lias ;i wide 
ac(|uaintance and is sought on many jjulilic 
occasions, his tastes and inclinatiims are 
domestic and he finds his chief hajipiness in 
his l)eautiful llrookline home. 

Mr. Whitman was marrieil un the ii;th nf 
January. 1865, to Jane Dole Hallett, a native 
of I'oston, but a descendant of distinguished 
Loyalist families who left Xew ^'ork in 
1783 at the close of the \\ ar of the Revolu- 
tion and settled in St. John, New Brunswick. 
Mr. and Mrs. \\'hitman have had eight 
children, of whom four sons an<l three 
daughters are living. Three of his sons are 
associated with him in William Whitman 
Companw Inc., and a son-in-law. Mr. 
Franklin W. Ifcjbbs, is jiresident of the 
Arlington Mills. 

I'eloved in his hoiue, respected anmng his 
business associates, and honored and influ- 
ential in the community at large, Mr. Whit- 
man stands for those principles of personal 
and business integrity upon which the wel- 
fare of state and nation fundamentally 
depends. His career illustrates the possi- 
bilities open to a luan wlm. tn the old 
re(|uirements of a sound mind and a smind 
bod}', adds a sound moralit)- and high 
business ideals. The success which has 
crowned his ambitinn has been hunnralile 
and dignified. 

\\1NTHR()P L. M.\R\IN 

An extensi\e newspaper knowledge and 
familiarity w ith the trade conditions of the 
country have enabled Winthrop L. Marvin, 
secretary and treasurer of the National As- 
sociation of Wool Manufacturers, to handle 
the affairs of that important body with great 
success. Mr. Marvin was burn in New 
Castle, N. H., Ma\- 15. iN').^, and was edu- 
cated iu the i)ublic and high schools of 
Portsmouth, N. H., at the Rcxxburx- Latin 
Scliool and at Tufts College, graduating 



A.!!, frcim the last named in 1SS4. During 
the latter ])art of his college term he acteil as 
a reporter on a daily pa])er, .-uid subse- 




UINTHKOP L. MAI<\1N 

quently, through successive changes, became 
as.sociate editor and chief editorial writer on 
the Boston Jdunuil. remaining in that capac- 
ity until 1904, when he went to Washing- 
ton as secretary of the Merchant Marine 
C'cimiuission of the United States. In 1908 
he was elected to his present position, with 
headquarters in Bo.ston. ^Ir. ]\Iarvin has 
been an extensive writer, and is the authcr 
iif "The American Merchant Marine; Its 
Histor}- and Romance," a work that is re- 
garded as a standard historical wnrk on this 
subject. He has also ccjntributed to various 
magazines editorials on manufacturing and 
the tariff. Tufts College conferred the 
honorary degree of Litt.D. upon him in 
1903. He is a member of the Phi Beta 
Kappa and the Theta Delta Chi fraternities, 
the Sons n\ the Revolution, the Algonquin, 
^Massachusetts, Home Market and Republi- 
can Clubs, and the I'oston Chamber of Coni- 
luerce. He is also an associate member of 
the Society of Naval Architects ;md Marine 
F,ngineers. 




ROBERT DYSART, B.C.S., C.P.A. 



One of the leading Public Accountants of the New England States, Counselor 
and.Special_Lecturer at the Pace Institute of Accountancy, Trustee 
of the Department of Statistics for the 
City of Boston, etc. 



IHF IU)()K Ol" I^OS'ION 



,U<) 



R(>r,l'.Rr DN'SART. H.C.S.. C.I'. A. 



Riilicrt Dxsart. H.-iclicli ir of C'niiinu'rcial 
Science. Certified Pul)lic .Xccnuntant. Coun- 
selor ami Special Lecturer at the Pace Insti- 
tute of Accountancx', Trustee of the Depart- 
ment of Statistics for the Cit\" of i'.oston, 
and a writer on financial and ecunoniic sub- 
jects, is a grandson tif the late Robert 
Dysart. Architect, of Xew Prunsw ick. Can- 
ada, and eldest son of the late .Xndrew Kntx 
l)\sart and l-".tta Miriam, daughter of the 
late Honorable R(ibert C'utler. for many 
years a member of Parliament in the Cana- 
dian House of C'linmins. 

.Mr. Dysart is a descendant i n the ])ater- 
nal side of a Xornian famil\- who settled in 
England at the time of the Conijuest ; and 
through his mother is (jf did W-w b.ngland 
and United lMn])ire Loxalist ancestr\-. trac- 
ing directh' from the Reverend Dr. Samuel 
Cutler, one of the first ( )rtho(lox clergxinen 
to the Massachusetts 15ay Colony, and F.lie- 
nezer L"utler, the Royalist, who accompanied 
the British .Arms to Canada at the outbreak 
of the Revolutionar\' War. 

His earlv eilucation was received in the 
public schools of his native province, sujjple- 
iiiented b\' sjjecial graduate courses taken in 
Accountanc}'. Commerce, Economics and 
I-'inance at the University of St. Joseph's 
College, one of the (jldest seats of learning 
in Eastern Canada. While a student at this 
institution, he was also graduated from the 
advan.ced courses given in I-'ngiish llelle- 
Lettres, Rhetoric, History and Mathematics. 
I'rior to the foregoing collegiate courses, he 
attended the Roy.al .Military Schocjl at 
Fredericton. 

Deciding updU a linanci;il career, he en- 
tered the offices of the \eteran .State Street 
.\cconnt;uit and .\uditor. .\ndre\v .Stewart. 
(.l'..\.. where he remained for sever. il 
years, in close touch with the \er\ excep- 
tional range (.)f i ippurtunities .afforded for 



the ac(pii-.ition of that breadth of experience. 
;ind S(]un(lne>s of i)rofessional training, so 
essential to the success of the C( insulting 
])ublic accountant of the ])resent da\'. 

He stibse(|tientl\' o])ened offices of 'lis 
own. and has been favored with a large 
practice, lieing the audUor tor upwards of 
two humlreil and tift\ millions of xested 
cajjital. in addition to the general prac- 
tice of accountancw including periodical 
,'ind special inxestigatioiis and audits for 
banks, trust companies, manufacturers, 
directors, creditors' coninn'ttees. municipali- 
ties, trustees in probate. bankru]itc\' and es- 
tate aft'airs. etc.; he is also extensively en- 
gaged, with the aid of a permanent staff 
of assistants, on constructixe and cost ac- 
counting : numbering among his clients man\- 
of the largest manufacturing, trading and 
textile Corporations in the countr\-. His 
Jjoston offices are located in the L'nion Hank 
P.uilding at 40 .State .Street, with branch 
oftices in Xew \'ork City and in .St. John. 
Xew 1 Brunswick. 

Besides memliership in several literar\- 
.and charitable organizations, he is a mem- 
ber of the American .Academ\- of Political 
Science, the I'lostoinan .Sucietx. the (,'opkw 
Society, the .American Mathematical So- 
ciety the St. John ( iun ( lub, the Boston 
City (lull, the Cana<lian Club uf Boston, 
the L lover Llub, the I'.coiiomic Club, and is 
a fellow of the .American .Association of 
Public .\ccountants. and of the .Sciciet\' of 
Certified Public .\ccountants of .M.assa- 
chusetts. 

.\lthough a naturalized citizen of the 
Cnile<l -States. Mr. Dysart still ni.iint.ains an 
active interest in his old home in Xew Bruns- 
wick, inxariabiy spending his vacations there 
at the l.imily seat. Cocaigne. to which he 
succeeded on the death of his father in 1912. 



350 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY 



The United Shoe Machinery Company 
was organized February 7, 1899, by the 
consohdation of three separate concerns 
then manufacturing shoe machinery, each 
making machines adapted to a particular 
class of operations : The Goodyear Shoe Ma- 
chinery Company, the Consolidated and Mc- 
Kay Lasting Machine Company and The 
McKay Shoe Machinery Company. The 
Goodyear Shoe Machinery Company was 
making chiefly machines for sewing the sole 
to the upper in welt shoes, and various aux- 
iliary machines which helped to perfect the 
shoes. The Consolidated and McKay Last- 
ing Machine Company was manufacturing 
machines for lasting a shoe. The McKay 
Shoe Machinery Company was producing 
various machines for attaching soles and 
heels by metallic fastenings, and furnish- 
ing material for that purpose. The objects 
of the consolidation, as subsecpiently defined 
bv the president of the new organization, 
Mr. Sidney \V. Winslow, were : ( i ) To 
reduce the cost of pmduction of the ma- 
chines; (2) to improve the quality of serv- 
ice furnished with(jut increasing the cost to 
the shoe manufacturer; (3) to give to each 
manufacturer who might wish it an oppor- 
tunity to get from a single company under 
these improved conditions such of these 
machines as he might need in that depart- 
ment of the factory in which soles and heels 
are attached to uppers — the machines in 
what is known as the "l;)ottoming room." 

The three companies cimsolidated were 
not competing concerns, Ijut the machines 
of all three were dependent links in an in- 
dustrial chain. The shoe manufacturer de- 
siring to instal the chain in his factor}- had 
previously been obliged to patronize all 
three, going to each for that part of his 
eciuipment which it exclusively supplied. 
The union of the three in one organization 
brought the machines under a single super- 
vision and control, and established uniform 
methods of administration that resulted in 
uninterrupted and larger service in the 
factories. 



The story of the evolution of shoe ma- 
chinery and the replacement of the human 
hand by the present elal)orate system of 
machines, almost human in their operation 
and more than human in the accuracy and 
perfection of their results, began with the 
invention of the sewing machine in the 
eighteen forties. One of the earliest uses 
to which that machine was put was in the 
sewing together of the pieces of soft and 
pliable leather which constitutes the upper 
of a shoe. The next step was the contriv- 
ing of a machine to perform the far more 
complicated operations of sewing the upper 
to the thick and heavy sole. This was ac- 
complished, after some years of endeavor 
had passed, with the invention by Lyman 
R. Blake, of the McKay Sewing Machine, 
introduced by Gordon McKay in 1862. By 
that machine the thread was carried through 
into the inside of the inner sole, leaving a 
rasping edge on which the stockings of the 
wearer rubbed. Its service was also limited, 
since it displaced only the coarser grade of 
shoe. The hand-sewn shoe, with its welt — 
the thin and narrow strip of leather first 
sewed to the insole and upper — and the 
heavy outsole sewed to the welt, so that the 
stitches come outside and do not touch 
the foot, remained the favored of fashion 
and of those who would have comfort and 
could afford the price. 

To devise a machine that would perform 
this operation of sewing with welts, a deli- 
cate one by hand, was the next move. More 
years elapsed before this was satisfactorily 
acci )niplished. The problem was solved with 
an invention of Auguste Destouy, supple- 
mented by improvements and auxiliaries by 
Christian Dancel and other mechanical gen- 
iuses, under the direction of Charles Good- 
year, a son of Charles Goodyear, the famous 
inventor and discoverer of the process of 
vulcanizing rubber. Then appeared the 
Goodyear welting and stitching machines, 
so named from Mr. Goodyear, who had 
financed and perfected them. These two 
machines are the nucleus of the Goodyear 



^^ES^^^ 


r 

* 




1 


1 


Hp 


JH^,J1 






WM 


M 


Jf 




s:''. 


^ 


1 


"^ 


^BIF 








SIDNEY \V. WINSLOW 
PRESIDENT UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CO. 



352 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Welt S)-stem of today, to which has been 
attributed a revolution in the shoe industry. 
Although they are entirely distinct machines, 
they are inseparable, for neither can be used 
effectively without the other in making the 
modern Goodyear welt shoe. 

The next problem that engaged inventors, 
more difficult even than that of machine- 
sewing with welts, was the contrivance of 
machinery to substitute for the human hand 
in fitting the upper of the shoe to the last 
and in pulling the leather over the last's 
ileiicate lines and curves. At length this 
was solved with the invention of the lasting- 
machine and the intricate series comprising 
the Re.x I'ulling-over Svstem. 

Thus, one after another, ever}- important 
operation had yielded to invention. Nu- 
merous machines followed, or were earlier 
invented, for detail work — as shaping, com- 
pressing and nailing heels, attaching soles to 
uppers in heavy shoes by copper screws and 
wires, rounding, "buffing" and polishing the 
soles, and performing many other opera- 
tions, some seemingly trivial yet all essential 
to perfection in comfort, durability and 
style. 

Toda}- fifty-eight machines are emplo-\-ed 
in a single department in the making of 
every good shoe, and all departments recpiire 
163 machines and 210 separate operations, 
and so perfectly are the machines of the 
Goodyear System adjusted one to another 
that they are descrilied as working together 
altnost with the precision of a watch. Bv 
this mar\-ell(.ius system of machines perfect 
shoes are turnetl out today by the hundred 
in the time it took the old-style workman to 
make by hand, and less perfectly, a single 
pair. The industry has been completeh- 
transformed and there is no important oper- 
ation in a shoe which need now be done In- 
hand. The finest grades of sewn shoes 
which, under the hand system, were a lux- 
ury enjoyed exclusivel\- 1)\- the well-to-do, 
are in these days brought within the reach 
of persons of modest means. As the clever 
writer of "The Secret of the Shoe" has ex- 
pressed it, "the feet of the million are clad 
today as finely as the feet of yesterday's 
millionaire." The average man has "a bet- 



ter-fitting, better-wearing and Ix-tter-looking 
shoe than the moneyed man of yesterday, at 
a fraction of the expense." So, too, the 
coarser grades have been improved, and the 
cost to the wearer reduced. Nearly all of 
the machines now in service are of American 
invention. 

The United Shoe Machiner\- Company 
continued the ro}-alty system of the consoli- 
dated companies, and assumed the entire re- 
sponsibility of replacing obsolete machines 
with others up to date, and of keeping all 
machinery in repair so that no time may be 
lost through the idleness of any part of the 
system which has been installed. In look- 
ing after its machines in the factories of its 
lessees, and in keeping them in repair and in 
steady working order, the compan\- now has 
employed a force of five hundred expert 
mechanics, while it keeps a staff of a hun- 
dred inventors in its immediate employ con- 
tinually on the w-atch for new ideas, or, in 
the experimental laboratories of its great 
factory, working out new devices or im- 
provements upon those in service, that its 
machines may reach the highest point of 
productive efficiency. 

Under the ro}-alty system in leasing its 
machines which the company maintains, the 
shoe manufacturer, instead of buying his 
machines outright, pays for their use a 
fixed sum on each pair of shoes made. The 
royalty is what the company gets for the 
manufacture, installation, use, care and 
service in keeping the machines in running- 
order and for instruction of operatives. Ac- 
cording to official statement, the a\-erage 
royalty paid l)y a shoe manufacturer toda\- 
for the use of all machines furnished b\- the 
company in the manufacture of all types 
and grades of shoes, is less than 2 2-3 cents 
per pair of shoes. This includes the Good- 
year welt shoe, the highest priced shoe and 
the best which can be bought, on which the 
highest royalty paid is less than 5 1-4 cents 
per pair. The Good\-ear welt shoes consti- 
tute less than one-third of the annual pro- 
duction of the United States. On two-thirds 
of the total annual production, if all the 
company's machines were used in their 
manufacture, the royalty would average less 




GEORCJE \V. BROWN 
VICE-HKKSIUENT UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CO. 



354 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



than I 1-3 cents a pair. On some grades 
the royalty is three-quarters of a cent. The 
machines are leased to all shoe manufac- 
turers, large and small, on the same terms, 
with special privileges to none. Thus, with 
respect to machinery, the small manufac- 
turer has the same advantage as the large 
one. He is enabled to pursue his business 
and compete with the larger concerns in the 
industry without t_\"ing up a large amount 
of capital in purchased machinery, as the 
large manufacturer can afford to do, and 
machinery su])ject to more rapid deprecia- 
tii)n, it is said, than that employed in any 
other large industry. The company was 
making, in 1914, over three hundred differ- 
ent machines, some of which are leased on 
the royalty system, although many are sold 
outright, and the larger number may be 
leased or purchased, as the shoe manufac- 
turer may prefer. Of its output, nearly one 
hundred are new machines which it has 
produced, sixteen of which perform opera- 
tions which before their intri;)duction could 
only be done by hand. 

The general offices of the United Shoe 
Machinery Company are in Boston, the fac- 
tories in Beverly. The plant in Beverly is 
a remarkable industrial institution. It is at 
once a model factory of a high type of 
modern construction and equipment, and an 
estaljlishment in which what is popularly 
termed welfare work, or more practically, 
if less tersely, defined as "the intensive co- 
operation between employer and employee 
for the purpose of insuring the highest in- 
dustrial efficiency in the group and securing 
for the individual the best of living and rec- 
reational conditions," has been carried to 
the highest standard. \Vhile it is one of the 
largest of its class in the country, the pro- 
visions made for the comfort, safety, health 
and contentment of its mass of employees, 
at times upwards of five thousand persons, 
men and women, are pronounced to be not 
excelled, and, perhaps, not equalled at any 
other factory in the world. It occupies a 
tract of three hundred acres, admirably sit- 
uated on the water front and attractivelv 
laid out. It comprises sixteen buildings, all 
constructed of re-enforcetl concrete, two of 



them eleven hundred and twenty feet long 
and sixty feet wide, with over twenty-one 
acres of floor space. All are flooded with 
light and abundantly freshened with air. 
Seventy-five per cent, of the wall space of 
most of them is devoted to windows. A 
few of them have as high as ninety per cent, 
wall space of glass. The whole plant is 
also lavishly supplied with electric light. Be- 
sides the lamps placed to radiate light gen- 
erally, there are individual lamps with 
])rotected eye-shades at every machine, read\- 
for use at all times. The plant is further 
equipped with aerating apparatus and suc- 
tion fans, for the inbringing of fresh air 
and the expulsion of foul air, metallic dust, 
gases and other impurities. 

These sixteen buildings constitute the 
works for the making of the many varie- 
ties of machines, of which, it is stated, 
24,000 are shipped annually, while the num- 
ber of parts of machines shipped reaches 
21,000,000. The provisions for the well- 
being and recreation of the thousands of 
employees are as ample and complete as are 
the works for their purposes. These include 
a fully-equipped emergency hospital, rest- 
rooms comfortably and invitingly furnished 
and supplied for the women employees, a 
great restaurant where the employees may 
get their mid-da_\- lunch at cost, the vege- 
tables grown in the company's own gar- 
dens, other foodstuffs brought direct to the 
factory in freight cars; a luxurious clul)- 
house, erected, equipped and given to the 
workers by the company, and managed by 
the United Shoe ]Machinery Athletic As- 
sociation, the club members paying each a 
dollar a year dues; extensive athletic fields 
in front of the club-house for baseball, foot- 
ball, cricket, track sports ; tennis courts at 
its side, within walking distance of the club- 
house, and a shooting range, one of the 
finest in the State. Besides the usual club 
equipments, including a well-stocked read- 
ing-room and a dining-room, are a dance 
hall and a theatre. AVonien are club mem- 
bers as well as men. There is a special de- 
partment devoted exclusively to their use, 
although they share the rest of the club- 
house with the men. A golf club, yacht and 



TTIF. ROOK OF BOSTON 



,■),•> :i 



motor Imat clulis are also fostercil, ami 
there is an admirable United Shoe Ma- 
chinery r.and. The .\thletic Association 
publishes a creditable monthly magazine en- 
titled "The Three Partners" — the three be- 
ing Capital. Labor and the Public, gi\ing 
accounts of sporting events and United 
Shoe news. An industrial training school 
for boys, relays from the high school of 
Beverl}-, is conducted in the factory. The 
l)ovs are taught in detail at the machines and 
in various departments, under the direction 
of instructors, and receive pav for their 
^\■ork, anil ultimate! v thev mav l)e graduated 
into the factory as regular hands. The 
school is carried on bv the companv in con- 
junction with the City of Beverly and the 
State of Massachusetts. 

The standard of work throughout this 
factory is classed as high ; and the content- 
ment of the workers, together with the atl- 
vantages of its situation and perfected sani- 
tarv conditions, marks it, in the judgment of 
factor}- experts, fcjreuMst among the liest 
tx'iie of twentieth centurv industrial estab- 
lishments. The statement is officialh- made 
that the wages ]);u(l here average higher 
than those ])aid in any other factory of 
equal size in Massachusetts. 

Sidne_\' \\'ilmiit Winslow, the president 
and the head since its establishment, has 
been termed the guiding genius of this great 
concern. He was particularly the guiding 
genius in its evolution. It was through his 
initiative that the three separate companies 
were united into the one organization, and 
that under such union the shoe manufac- 
turing industr}" was standardized; while 
the development of the model Beverly in- 
stitution, together with the great prosperity 
of the organization, is to be attributed solel\- 
to the remarkable ability of Mr. \\'inslow 
and the officials in association with him in 
the company's directorate. lie was the son 
of a shoemaker, and himself had been a 
shoemaker and later a shoe-machine maker, 
familiar by experience with ,ill the details 
of shoe manufacture and of shoe machinery. 
He is a native of ("ape Cod and of the best 
of Pilgrim stock. He was born in lirewster, 



September 20, 1854. son of Freeman and 
I.ucy II. ( Rogers I Winslow. ( )n the ma- 
ternal sitle he is descended from Thomas 
Rogers, who came out in the "Mayflower" 
in i6jo, while on the father's side he is direct 
from Kenelm \\ inslow, brother of Edward 
Winslow of the first comers, who was the 
third go\ernor of the Phiiiouth colony and 
i)ne of the original settlers of Marshfield. 
Freeman \\'inslow was first a shoemaker, 
or Cobbler, mi board a whaling ship. When 
he forsook the sea he opened a village shoe- 
making shop of his own, and here the boy, 
Sidney, got his first lessons in the trade. 
He attended the grammar and high school 
at Salem, and. ui)on graduation from the 
latter, entered the father's factory. He re- 
mained here fourteen years, doing all sorts 
of work, from pegging heels at first to run- 
ning one machine after another, liis last 
service being as foreman of the stitching- 
room. 

When he first began work in the Salem 
factor\- onl\- the McKa}' sewing machine for 
attaching soles to u])pers had been invented, 
and that had but recently lieen introduced. 
\\ hile foreman in the stitching-room he be- 
came imjiressed with the vital importance 
of shoe machinery in the development of 
the lioot and shoe industry, and especiallv 
with the serious disadvantages under which 
manufacturers labored because of the niul- 
tijjlicity of companies controlling the vari- 
ous machines in performing the different 
o]ierations necessary in making shoes. Mr. 
Winslow was impressed with the economic 
wastefulness of the \arious small companies 
that were striving anicnig themselves for the 
business of shoe manufacturers, with the re- 
sulting loss both to labor and capital. His 
first venture in shoe machinery making was 
in connection with a machine invented by 
his father, who was a man of great inven- 
ti\e talents. This was the Xaumkeag buf- 
fing machine. "Sir. Winslow secured a con- 
trolling interest in this machine in 1883, 
.•md still holds it. -Subsequently he was at- 
tracted to the hand method lasting machine, 
invented by Jan l'"rnest Matzeliger, a shoe 
worker of l.ynn, in 1883, which was de- 



.^56 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



signed to perform a delicate operation that, 
from the beginning of shoe machinery, had 
always been done by hand. Its inventor, 
after securing the patent, had neither the 
capital nor the business experience to make 
it commercially practical and, although 
others became financially interested, it did 
not become a commercial success until Mr. 
Winslow, perceiving its possibilities, in 
1892, associated with himself men of or- 
ganizing capacity and pecuniar)- resources, 
and put it on a paying basis. In the mean- 
time other lasting machines had come on 
the market, each adapted to make a particu- 
lar type of shoe. All of these machines 
were finally gathered into the possession of 
the Consolidated and AIcKa\- Lasting Ma- 
chine Company, of which ^\'allace F. Rob- 
inson became president and George W. 
Brown treasurer and general manager, 
while Mr. ^^'inslow was active in the direc- 
tion of its affairs. Machines for perform- 
ing the various other operations in making- 
shoes were still in the hands of numerous 
separate companies. By degrees, however, 
several of the smaller concerns had gone out 
of business, and by 1899 the making of 
shoe machinery had centered in the 
three companies subsequently consolidated, 
through the initiative of ]Mr. Winslow, in 
the United Shoe Machinery Compan\-, with 
a directorate composed principally of lead- 
ing New England and New York business 



men 



^Ir. Winslow is an indefatigable worker, 
arriving at his office early and leaving late. 
Yet, with all his business interests, he finds 
time for wholesome relaxation. He is a 
devotee of chess and an enthusiastic tennis 
and golf player. He is a connoisseur in 
paintings and has collected many art treas- 
ures, which adorn his home. His club as- 
sociations are with the Commercial, Algon- 
quin and Boston Chess. He was married 
in 1877 to Miss Georgiana Buxton, daugh- 
ter of George Buxton of Peabody, and the 
children by this union are Sidney W., Jr., 
Lucy, now Mrs. Hill; Mabel W., now Mrs. 
Foster, and Edward H. Winslow. 



George \\'ashington Brown, vice-presi- 
dent of the United Shoe Machinery Com- 
pany, was 1)orn in Northfield, Vermont, 
August 30, 1841, the son of Isaac Washing- 
ton and Sylvia Elvira (Partridge) Brown. 
His ancestors were among the earliest of 
the sturdy pioneers who journeyed, after 
the Revolutionary \\'ar, from Connecticut to 
A'ermont, the forbears of a race whose rep- 
resentatives have been prominent in all 
branches of intellectual and commercial ac- 
tivity. He was educated in the public 
schools and the Newbury (Vermont) Sem- 
inary, and at the age of eighteen entered 
the emplo)' of the \"ermont Central Rail- 
road shops at Northfield. In 1865, he be- 
came a member of the firm of Hyde & 
Brown, grocers, and, in 1867, formed a 
partnership under the name of McGowan 
& Brown, dealers in hardware. In 1869 
he entered the service of the Central Pacific 
Railroad as auditor of its motive power de- 
]iartment, with headcjuarters in Sacramento, 
California. In 1871 he returned East and 
liecame a salesman in the employ of the 
\Mieeler & Wilson Company. His diligence 
and ability led to rapid advancement and, 
in 1876, he was made general manager of 
the company's New England business. 

In 1892 Mr. Brown resigned to become 
general manager and treasurer of the Con- 
solidated Hand Method Lasting Machine 
Company, and, under his management, the 
resources and standing of the company so 
developed that it became the prime factor 
in the union of the different busting machine 
companies in a new company known as 
the Consolidated McKay Lasting Machine 
Company, of which Mr. Brown was made 
treasurer and general manager. Under his 
direction the important divisions of the sh: e 
manufacturing industry served by this com- 
])any were developed and organized as they 
had never been l^efore. When the United 
Shoe Alachinery Company was organized 
in 1899, Mr. Brown was made treasurer 
and general manager of the company, and 
l)r(jught to it experience of the highest 
order. In 1909 he resigned as treasurer 



'ihp: book OI" i^ostox 



,1,-1/ 



and <;fiu-ral manager, and since tlu-n lias 
l)een a vice-president (if tlie c<ini])any and 
cliainnan of its finance Cdniniittee. 

Air. ISrown has travelled extensively and 
has a !ar_<;e circle of personal friends and 
liusiness acciuaintances in every part of the 
world. He is a patron of art and a collec- 
tor of the best, and a love of nuisic is cme 
of his predominating ciiaracteristics. As a 
member of the execntive committee of the 
\\'elfare Dejiartment nf the Xatinnal Civic 
Federatidn, he has been in clise tnuch \\ith 



its work, which is rellected in his s])ecial in- 
terest in all that affects the health, ha])piness 
and comfort of the cmplo\ees of the United 
.Shoe Maciiinery Conijjany, both in the Bos- 
ton offices and at the great factory at 
J ieverl}-. 

Mr. Jirown was married Ma\ 5. ii'^63, to 
Addie K. Perkins, who died in Jniie, 1900. 
Their son, Edwin P. Brown, well known in 
the business and financial circles of P)OSton, 
was chosen the general manager of the 
Ci !m]iaii\' in 191 1 . 



Pertinent Facts about the Manufacturing Plant of the 
United Shoe Machinery Company 




MANUF.VLTIKIXG PLANT. U-Mll-.l) SHOE .MAl.lllM.KV CO.Ml'AXV, B1.\1,K1.V, M.\S.S. 



M:ic liiii.'r> III 



SixliTii Itiiililliii.',, of Kfiiirorft-il < '.oni-ri'tr < '.011,^1 riK-lioii. with Floor S|»;n-i* of M2I. 0(111 Sqiiar*- KimM. iir o\it 21 \*t€*s 

Maniirafluriiij; Itiiildin^s. 112(1 F«-el l.oim. Mi K«*fl >\ i«l«-. Four Floors 
l'o\*»T Molls*- I Id \ tit Ft. K(|ui|>|mmI Willi Tlirt'r <!iirtis 'I'lirliint- FiiKinos. Twi* 7.1(1 Kw. Ka4-li. arul Oiu- l.»0(l Kw. 

Four ItalK-ro's ol' lloilirs. KIIKI II. I'. Caparily 

i£:llolll the >Korks l)ri\,-n l>> <>.*> Indlli-tion Motors. Caiiarily Kan::iii:z IVoItl .3 11. I*, (o T."* II. I*. F.arh 

Founilr> :l')ll Fill l.oii:; \ l(l<)Fi'i'l « idi-. ( :a|iaiil >. .~>(l Ions ol ( last iims |M'r lla\ 

<:a|ia.il> ol l>r<>|> For:;.- Iliparl iiiinl . MI.IXIK I'i.i <s I'.r W ..k 

l.id.lKHI I'oiinils ol Slrrl I sill I'lr \% iik ill Maiilirarllirltli.- 

18(M( Tons ol' Sli-i-l <;arricil ill Sloi-k SiipiiU Itooni for I si- in Maniifai-llirinu 

Over lOll.dOl) Calalouui-il Mai-liini- I'arls Carrii-il in Slii<-k in Finisli<-il Stoi k Itooni 

<Uir 2I.(IIHMI0II I'arls of Ma. Iiincs S.-iH Out From Sloi-k Kooin \nniiall> 

0\<-r 2I.(I(KI Ma<-liin<-s Slii|i|ii-<l li> iIk- <',oni|iany \nniially 

lliiililinus lli-al*-il li\ I lol - \ ir Sy sl«-in During ( lolil ^ «-alli<-r. anil lilt- Sanii' Fans Su|>|>ly < '.olil Vir Ihiritii^ llol Wt-ather 

\ i-nlilal*-(l Mftal l.orki-rs for ^iirkni(-n's IJotlli-s. F.ai-ll >^orkitiaii lla«illu His lnili>i(liial l.oi-kf-r ailfl Key 

Iii4li\iilnal Wash lliisins anil Sliowi-r Itallis in >^ ash Itooins 

Tnili-I Kooiiis. \(ash Kooiiis. Hath Koonis an<l Lounuinu Itoonis for >Koiii<-n Fiii|ilo> i-i-s. with Vfatron in Altf-nilanrn 

All Toiirt Koonis an- \ i-nt ilal<-il liy hMiaiist Fans of Siii-li Si/.i- and Spi-t-d as to < Jianui- tin- Vir K*«'ry 'rwflve Minuti^ 

Fully F.«iiii|i|M-(l hani-r^i-nry llospital w it li 'rraini-d \tli-ndanl inOharu*- 

Itt-stuiirant with Si-atiiiu: Caiiai-ity for h.'id 

Forl> -I lir<-«- l*ri%iit<- IIooium for Invfiilors* 1 si- 

r.lubhniisf- for Fniploy i-i-s with l-loor Spai-i- of 0>*-r I I. (MM! Sqiiarr I-*-*-! and a 'l'«-n- \.-r«- Kit-Id for \lhl«-lit- SfMirl 



iuti*a 



35S, 



THE ROOK OF BOSTON 



SHERMAN W. LADD 

(deceased) 

Shoe Machinery Expert 



Sherman W. Ladd was born in Holder- 
ness, New Hampshire, September 27, 1855, 
and was descended from Samuel Ladd, who 




SHERMAN W. LADD (dECEASEd) 

came from England to Plymouth County in 
1643. His father, Hale Moulton Ladd, and 
his ancestors, Jesse and Herman Ladd, were 
inventors. 

Mr. Ladd was twice married. First, to 
Lilla H. S. Jackson, and second, to Mary, 
daughter of Charles and Alargaret Stowell 
of Medford, Mass. He was a member 
of the Union Club of Beverly and the 
Beverly Board of Trade. ]\Ir. Ladd was a 
natural mechanical genius. He was always 
even in childhood, handy with his knife in 
whittling out different articles, and pos- 
sessed that mechanical genius whereby, in 
later years, he was able to conceive and then 
develop into first-class mechanical shape 
different kinds of mechanism. He was an 
invaluable man for reducing inventions to 



practical commercial shape, and his specialty 
was designing and constructing shoe ma- 
chinery. Early in life he was associated 
with ]\Ir. Louis Goddu in making different 
kinds of shoe machinery, notably the 
Standard Screw machine for attaching the 
outsoles of boots and shoes by a screw- 
threaded wire. This machine had a success- 
ful career and was well known to shoe 
manufacturers throughout the United 
States. He also was associated with An- 
drew Eppler, of the Eppler Sewing Machine 
Co., in improving, designing and manufac- 
turing welt sewing machines. In 1888, he 
became associated with Cliarles S. Gooding, 
mechanical engineer, in the designing and 
improving of the Matzeliger lasting machine 
for the Hand Method Lasting Machine Co. 
of L}-nn. Several patents were taken out by 
Mr. Gooding and Mr. Ladd on the improved 
lasting machine. The first machine was 
built and successfully operated in a shoe fac- 
tory for a year and a half. Subsequent to. 
his association with Mr. Gooding, Mr. Ladd 
entered the employ of the Consolidated 
Hand Method Lasting Machine Co., invent- 
ing and building new machines during the 
dift'erent changes in location and in name 
of the companies which succeeded said com- 
pany and finally developed into the LTnited 
Shoe Machinery Co., with which concern he 
remained until his death. During this time 
he invented and took out patents upon 
twenty-six dift'erent mechanisms, the dates 
covering a period extending from 1890 to 
October, 191 1. Between 1903 and 1909, Mr. 
Ladd, in addition to inventing, improving 
and superintending the construction of a 
large variety of shoe machinery, was en- 
gaged in building and perfecting manufac- 
turing plants, for the United Shoe iMachin- 
ery Co., in France, England and Germany, 
and from 1909 until his death in 191 1, he 
resided in Beverly and Montreal. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



vSQ 



C'1IARL]-:S S. (iOUDlN(;, M.E 
Expert in Shoe AIachixery 



Charles S. Gooding was born in Brook- 
line, Mass., June 22, 185S, and was educated 
in the Brookline Public Schools, graduating 




CHARLES S. GOODING 



froni the I'.rookline High ScIkhiI with 
honors at the age of sixteen. He passed 
his examinations for the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology immediately, and 
graduated as Bachelor of Science in Me- 
chanical Engineering at the age of twenty 
in the class of '79, of which he is secretary 
and treasurer. Soon after graduating from 
Tech he went to Pittsburgh, Pa., in the 
employ of the P. C. & St. L. Railway. 
Subsecjuently he was engaged to take a posi- 
tion as Professor of Mechanical Engineer- 
ing in the H. C. C. L Institute of Charleston, 
South Carolina, where he started a Mechan- 
ical Engineering department with night 
classes for mechanics who could not attend 
the (lav classes. 

Resigning from his position in Charles- 
ton, Mr. Gooding returned to Boston and 



started a Mechanical luiginecring office at 
8g Court Street, in January, 1883. Two 
years later lie moved to School Street, where 
he has continued the practice oi Mechanical 
Engineering, the soliciting of patents and 
as an expert in ])atent causes for the past 
thirty years. During that time, he has 
designed and sui)erintended the building of 
large numbers of machines of dilTerent 
classes (jf invention, including shoe machin- 
evy, textile machiner\-, printing machinery, 
and special machiner\- of man\- kinds. For 
a number of years Mr. Gooding made a 
specialty of designing shoe machinery and, 
in association with the late Sherman W. 
Ladd, designed and patented the first ma- 
chine that the parent company of the 
United Shoe ^Machinery Co., viz., the Hand 
Method Lasting Machine Co., put on the 
market, this machine being known as the 
hand method lasting machine. During his 
business career, ^Ir. Gooding has invented 
and patented a great many machines and 
devices and has had United States patents 
issued on forty-two of these inventions. 

Mr. (iooding is of English ancestr\', the 
American branch of the family having been 
established by George Gooding, who came 
to New England in the seventeenth centurw 
He died in 1701 and is buried at Dighton, 
Alassachusetts. On the paternal side Mr. 
Gooding is directly descended from John 
Howland, who came over in the "May- 
flower." With the exception of four years, 
Mr. Gooding has resided in Brookline dur- 
ing his entire life. He was married there 
in 188 1 to Cora Adeline Haven, and has 
three daughters, all of wliom are married 
and li\e in that beautiful suburlx 

He is a Republican in jiolitics and is a 
member of the lioston City Clul), the Ameri- 
can Sociel}' ol Mechanical Engineers, the 
.\merican Association for the Advancement 
of Science, the .American Patent Law 
Association, and the Bostcjn Chamber of 
Commerce. 



360 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



S. A. WOODS MACHINE COMPANY 



The S. A. Woods Machine Co. is one of 
the oldest manufacturers of woodworking 
machinery in America. The original com- 




HARRY CR-\XE DODGE 

|)an\- was formed in 1S54 liy Snlomun A. 
Woods. In 1873 the company was incor- 
porated under the name of the S. .\. Woods 
Machine Co., with Solomon A. \\'oods as 
])resident. Under his management the com- 
pany grew rapidly and extended its line of 
manufacture. In 1907, on the death of 
Solomon A. Woods, his son, Frank F. 
Woods, succeeded to the presidency of the 
company. In 191 2 Frank F. \Wiods sold 
his interest in the company to H. C. Dodge 
and C. W. H. IMood, the former then be- 
coming the jjresident of the company, and 
the latter its vice-president. Under the new 
management a broader Inisiness policy was 
inaugurated and its line extended. The 
company has for years enjoyed a reputation 
of making a very high grade of machinery, 
and recently has extended its field of busi- 
ness to include the most prominent lumber- 
ing sections in all parts of the world. The 
plant of the company, which is situated on 
Damrell Street, South Boston, is one of the 



largest machine shops in New England. 
Ouite recently they made extensive additions 
which will ultimately give them as large a 
capacity as any plant in the world, in 
heavy planing-mill machinery. Harr}- Crane 
Dodge, president of S. A. Woods Machine 
Co., was born in ^^'(>burn, Mass., October 
^r, 1 88 1, and was educated at the Boston 
Latin School and Harvard University. He 
is a .son of Frank F. and Nellie ( Crane ) 
Dodge, and his ancestors on Ijoth the pater- 
nal and maternal sides were among the early 
New England colonists settling at Newbury- 
port and in the vicinit)' of Plymouth, re- 
.spectively, aljout 1635. Mr. Dodge began 
his business career in 1904, as a salesman 
for S. A. Woods Machine Co., in the snuth- 
eastern district. He was made southern 
manager, with headcjuarters at New Orleans, 
in Ti)o8: general sales manager at I'xiston in 
i(;ii, secretary the same >ear. and became 




CHARLES W. H. BLOOD 



president in October, iyi2. He is a memljer 
of the Boston Art Club, Boston Athletic As- 
sociation, Harvard Club of Boston, Boston 
Press Club, Commonwealth Country Club, 
and the Seminole Club of Jacksonville, Fla. 



THK BOOK OF BOSTON 



,^61 



C \\ . H. ]!lr>(i(l, wliii tills tin- ilual jxisi- 
tion of vice-presitlent and treasurer of the 
compaii}', was born in Kalamazoo, ^Michigan. 
July j,o, 1864. After a j^reparatory train- 
ing in the ])ul)lic schools he entered Cornell 
L'niversity, from which he graduateil in 
iS(;i with the M.l-l. degree. Upon taking 
up his residence in Boston, he became asso- 
ciated A\ith S. .\. \\'oiids as a mechanical 
engineer, and ujjon the incurpiiratinn ol the 
compan}- was elected its \ice-president, 
eventually becoming one of the owners of 
the ])lant by purchase, with Mr. Ddtlge, i>f 
I'rank ¥. Woods' interest. Mr. Blood, in 
adilitinn to acting as vice-president and treas- 
m"cr, is general manager of the plant, his 
training and experience making him familiar 
with ever}- phase of machinery ccmstruction. 
He is a member of the American Societv of 
}ilechanical Engineers, the I'.iistun Athletic 
Associatii.n, the Biiston Art ( "lub and the 
Masonic fraternity. 

HERBERT T,. SITERAI \X 

Herliert L. Sherman, president of the 
New England Bureau of Tests, Inc., is a 
graduate of the ^Massachusetts Institute of 
Technolog\-. He was burn in Kingston, 
Mass., Novemljer 11, 1881, and, after grad- 
uation in 1902, entered actively upnii the 
practice of his profession. He was em- 
])loyed for a short time as assistant chemist 
for the Massachusetts State Board of 
Health and head chemist for the Helderberg 
Cement Company of Howes Cove, N. \'. 
He opened a laboratory in Boston in 1904 in 
general chemical work, both consulting and 
analytical, and made a specialty of the test- 
ing and inspection of structural materials, 
]irincipally cement and concrete. In Ajjril, 
0)r4, he consolidated his interests with the 
.New luigland interests of the Pittsljurgh 
Testing Laboratory and foun<lcd the com- 
])any of which he is now the executive head. 
])uring the twelve years that have ensued 
•since Mr. Sherman opened his Boston lab- 
oratory he has become recognized as the 
leading authority on tests and inspection of 
all clas.ses of materials in New l'"ngland. 
Some ol the principal construction work for 



which this service has been performed are 
the Charles River basin and dam. Common- 
wealth Biers No. s and 6, the \\'oo(l Worsted 




HKRHKRT I,. SllIKMAN 

.Mill, the L'liited Shoe Machinery buildings 
and the Naunikeag .Steam Cotton Co. build- 
ings. The compan\- makes nearly all the 
cement tests for the State of Massachusetts, 
and acts as consulting chemists for the Bos- 
ton & Alban\- Railroad Co. Recenth" Mr. 
Sherman designed the generating ecpiipment 
of the \'acuum Company of Somerville, 
which maintains the largest plant in the 
countr)- for the fumigation of foreign cot- 
ton in accordance with a recent Federal 
Statute, and the New England Bureau of 
Tests, Inc., has contracted to operate this 
plant for the first few months of its exist- 
ence. 

Mr. Sherman is a member of the Boston 
Society of Civil luigineers, the New Eng- 
land \\'ater Works Association, the Ameri- 
can Society for Testing Materials, the 
American Concrete Institute, the Boston 
City Club and the Oakley Count rv Club. 

The lal)oratory ;nid office of the New 
F'ngland Bureau of Tests, Inc., is at 12 
Pearl Street. 




ERASMUS B. BADGER 
FOUNDER OF THE E. B. BADGER & SONS CO. 



IHF. nOOK OF BOSTOX 



3r,:> 



]•:. 



r.ADCKR & SONS CO. 



Erastus Beethoven Badger, the subject <>t 
this sketch, was born on the first day of 
October. 1828, at tlie home of his parents 
on Hanover Street, at the north end of the 
citv. Shortiv afterward his father moved 
to Fort Hill, where the son spent his early 
years. 

Flis grandfather. I'aptain i ),iniel Hadgcr. 
was a rising ximng merchant, having a 
number of vessels in the Africa and h'ast 
Indies trade. At the age of forty- fnur 
vears, he cimtracted fever while Imarding 
one of his vessels on arrival from the coast 
of Africa, this causing his death. He was 
also deei)l\" interested in military affairs of 
the day, being captain of one (jf the com- 
panies organized l)\' order of the (iovernor 
to protect the City of Boston during the 
War of 1 812. 

His father, Daniel B. Jkulger, was a ship- 
ping broker, located on Custnm House 
Street, opposite the old Custom 1 louse. 
The son. Erastus B. Badger, being l>riiught 
u]) in full sight of Boston Harbor, then full 
of all kinds of sailing vessels, and accus- 
tomed to visiting them with his father, be- 
came thoroughly accpiainted with the various 
rigs of ships, barks, brigs and schooners, 
and could climb the masts and handle the 
rigging, having his mind fjn a seafaring life. 
He became intimately acquainted w ilh nian\- 
captains and mates, and at the age of 14, 
his one longing was to go to sea. He made 
a bargain with Captain Cross of the Brig 
"Attilla," also another with Captain Meas- 
ury (if the Brig "Xerious" — buth \essels 
regular packet.s — to the West Indies — but 
in l)oth instances his father intervened. 

He was accustomed to go on the news 
boat then stationed at India Wharf, its duty 
being to visit all vessels arriving in port, and 
reporting to the exchange. This he found 
most interesting and exciting. His father 
having frustrated his attempts to go to sea, 
he could often he found nn the ])ilot boat 
"Phantom," with Captain bihn ( )li\'er. In 
this instance his father again intervened, 
and on April 8, 1844, the sun cnnnnenced 
his apprenticeship with the firm uf Rice & 



Jenkins, as coppersmith, at the junctiim of 
Merrimack, Traverse and I'ortlantl Streets. 
His wages averaged two dollars and twenty- 
five cents per week. Being the youngest boy 
in their employ, he was obliged during the 
first two years U> ci]>en the factory, start the 
fires at a very early lidur (about 5:30), go 
to breakfast, and then return fur the day. 
At the age of twenty-one years he was mas- 
ter of hydraulics, which in those early days 
gave a large amount of business to the 
concern. 

On February 22. 1854, Mr. Jenkins hav- 
ing left the business, a ])artnership was 
formed to continue the business under the 
name. Rice, Hicks <!<: Badger, with the stipu- 
lation that Mr. Rice retire at the end of the 
first \ear, which he did. 1 licks & Badger 
continuing the business until :\\)Vi\ 8, 1879, 
when Mr. Hicks retired, and Mr. Badger 
was joined liv his son, Daniel B. Badger, 
who had learned his trade with Hicks & 
Badger. Under this management the busi- 
ness prospered. In the year 1892 Mr. A. C. 
Badger, who had learned his trade at the 
factorv, was admitted to the firm, and in 
1900 the business was incorporated as E. 
B. Badger & Sons Conqiany. 

Mr. Badger was an expert ciippersmith 
in everv sense of the word, having natural 
aliilitv for the handling of a manufacturing 
business. He retired from active Inisiness 
in 1910, and is today well and vigorous at 
almost the age of eighty-eight years. He has 
watched the Imsiness grow from a small 
company to its present magnitude. The 
nature of the work has changed constantly 
from coppersniithing to all forms of metal 
work used in connection with various manu- 
facturing industries throughout the country. 

Mr. Badger was married in early life to 
Fannie Babcock Campbell of Milton. He 
had eleven children of whom seven sons and 
one daughter are living. He was made a 
member of the First Baptist Church in Bos- 
t(jn. with his wife, in May, 1S52. and has 
l)een ver_\' active in all the oftices of the 
church to this day. 




HENRY STAPLES POTTER 

OF THE FIRM OF POTTER & WRIGHTINGTON, MAN VFACTL'RERS OF 

CEREALS AND CANNED GOODS 



IHH HOOK OF BOSTON 



HENRY STAPLES POTTI-.R 

Mr. I'dtter was hdrn in C'anilirid^c. 
Mass., Mav 31, 1848. Ik- \va> c(lucatf(l in 
the pul)lic schools and passeil tlie Harvard 
examinations, but, owing- to a serinus illness, 
did n<jt graduate. He is a director of the 
Conuucinwealth Trust Co., Massachusetts 
Real l-lstate Exchange, antl managing trustee 
of several estates. He was treasurer n\ the 
.\lgiin(|uin Club during the erectinn nf its 
new l)uilding and is a luember n\ the I'.oard 
of (iovernors of the Boston City Clul), mem- 
ber of the IJrookline Country L'lub, ( )akle\- 
Country Club, Belmont Country Club, llos- 
ton Art Club. Boston Athletic Assuciation. 
Garden City and Union League Clubs of 
New York. Mr. Potter is one of the ( )vcr- 
seers of the Poor of Boston. The fnunder 
of the Potter family was Jacob Potter, who 
.settled in Concord, ^Massachusetts, in 1638. 
11. Staples Potter's great-grandfather, i'\] 
his f;itlu-r"s side, was in the Revolutionary 
War, and held a c<immission, signed I))- 
John Hancock, as Captain of a Concord, 
Massachusetts, comjjany, that he formed. 
His great-grandfather, on the maternal side, 
was one of (ieneral \\ ashington's aides. 

geor(;e \v. miles 

George W. Miles, chemical expert, whose 
laboratorv is located at 88 Broad Street, 
was born in Milford, Conn., Decemlier 30, 
1868. He was educated in the schools of 
New Haven and the Sheffielil Scientific 
School, \'ale, graduating Ph.l!., in i88y. 
Tile same year he took a course at the Con- 
necticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 
New Haven, and then entered the employ of 
the Illinois Steel Co., Chicago. Erom there 
he went to New York Citv as first assistant 
to .Stillwcll kV (iladding, and, upon coming 
to JJoston, for eight years did all of the an- 
alytical W(irk in the laboratory of .\. D. 
Little. .Since severing his connection with 
Mr. IJttle, he has jiracticed his |)rofession 
alone, being engaged in general industrial 
chemistrx' which includes the analxsis and 



test of oils, soaps, fertilizers, water and 
general commercial ])roducts. Mr. Miles 

in general research 




GKORGI-. «. AriLKS 



work, and as a result has in\'ente(.l a sewage 
process, which experts sav is the Ijest known 
for a city like Boston. The ordinary system 
of sewage would be costlw and is generalh' 
operated at a loss. Cnder ]\Ir. Aides' proc- 
ess it would bring a jirofit, as in the dail\- 
pumpage of one hundred luillion gallons of 
sewage, the ])recipit;ition would be aljout one 
hundred tons of dry sludge, which \\'(_>uld 
produce twenty tons of grease and eighty 
tons of fertilizer. He is also the discoverer 
of hydrated cellulose acetate, which is non- 
intfammable and transi)areiU. 'Ibis pr(.nluct 
is largely used for a varnish on aeroplanes, 
and in the manufacture of artificial silk and 
moving picture films. Mr. Miles is a mem- 
ber of the Society of Chemical IndustrN', the 
American C'hennCil .Society the Dry Salters 
t'lub of Boston, the Royal Society of Arts, 
I'.ngland, the 'S'ale Club, Boston Chamber of 
('ommerce and Huston .Societv of Arts. 



366 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



SWIFT-McNUTT COMPANY 



The Swift-McNutt Co., the largest con- 
cern engaged in building-wrecking in New 
England, was formed l\v the consolidation 




FRANCIS H. SWIFT 



of the Swift Contracting Co. and the tirni 
of Roljert R. McNutt, Inc. These two 
companies had for a long time been en- 
gaged in the same kind of work, and real- 
izing that a comliinatiiin would large]\- 
increase the etifectiveness of each organiza- 
tion, they formed the new company with 
R. R. McNutt, president, and Francis H. 
Swift, treasurer. Since the consolidation 
the Ijusiness has grown wonderfully and the 
company does about ninet}-tive per cent, of 
all the wrecking in the cit\'. The work is not 
confined to New England, as the firm has 
completed large contracts in Kentucky and 
other states in the Union. 

The firm has established a reputation for 
the careful execution of large contracts 
and has recently completed the demolition 
of the old Hotel Pelhani, on the corner of 
Boylston and Tremont Streets. This 
Ijuilding, on one of the busiest corners in 
Boston, was taken down in the very short 



time of sixty days and presentetl many dif- 
ficulties, but the site was cleared within the 
time specified, and the work of erecting the 
new building was started promptly )jy 
the general contractors. Through the em- 
ployment of skilled foremen and its well- 
organized sales department, giving a quick 
market for material, the Company is enabled 
to meet conditions, no matter how difficult, 
and to complete the work with little delay 
and with safety to their employees and the 
general public. The Company maintains in- 
surance for the protection of the owner of 
the property, the public at large and their 
own employees, and their standing and rep- 
utation is such that they are al)le to file a 
Ijond in any amount to insure the faithful 
performance of their contract. In the 
course of its Ijusiness the Compan\- has been 
obliged to find a market for such material 
which would appear difficult to dispose of, 
and, as an outgrowth of this experience, 




ROBERT R. MCNUTT 



has established an appraisal department 
which can give a value on almost anything, 
having in mind the prompt disposal of same 



THF. ROOK OF ROSTOX 



367 



for casli. This department is used 1)\' man_\ 
w 111 1 have collateral to dispose of other than 
securities, and has proved a most effective 
instrument through which to realize. 

To facilitate the work, storage yards are 
k)cate(l all over Boston, one being located 
on Summer Street, one on Dorchester Ave- 
nue. South Roston, one at Massachusetts 
Avenue and Magazine Street, and two on 
Rroadway. Cambridgeport. These are all 
used for storage purposes and do away w ith 
long hauls. The Compan_\- ojierates its own 
saw mill for the purpose of turning out 
marketable stock from sizes not so easy to 
sell, and it is bv these methods that it is en- 
abled to make prompt delivery of all orders. 



b'.lston & Swift and the Swift Contracting 
Co. Mr. Swift is of Pilgrim ancestry, his 
family first settling in Cape Cod and later 
removing to New I'edford. He is a luember 
of the Harvard Club of Boston, the Elks, 
^lasonic fraternitx and chilis in Xew York 
and New Bedford. 

ROBERT R. McNUTT 

Robert R. McXutt. president of the com- 
pany, was born in Xo\a Scotia. January i6, 
1877, and was educated in the schcjols of 
that countrw He came to the Cnited States 
in 1895, locating at Lowell, where he lie- 
came foreman for a firm of contractors. He 




INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, G EOKl.KTOWN. KENTUCKY, WHICH WAS RECENTLY DISMANTLED BY THE S WIFT-MCNLTT CO. 



The Swift-McNutt Co. is capitalized at 
$50,000 and the annual turnover i.> 
$500,000. giving employment to from 300 
to 500 hands, most of whom are American 
born of Irish descent. The offices are lo- 
cated at 70 Devonshire Street, where all the 
details (jf the work are looked after. A 
branch ( ffice is maintained in Providence. 
R. J. There are local representatives also 
in most of the large cities of Xew luigland. 

FRANCIS H. SWIFT 

Francis H. Swift, treasurer of the Swift- 
AlcXutt Co., was born in New Bedford, 
Mass., June ist, 1880, and was educated at 
the Milton Academ\- and flarvard College. 
-After c(jnii)leting his education Mr. Swift 
went to Pittsburgh, Pa., in the employ of 
the W'estinghouse Manufacturing Co., but 
returned to Boston shortly afterwards and 
became a partner in the firm of A. A. Elston 
& Co., the concern e\enluall_\' becoming 



later organized the firm of R. R. ^IcXutt, 
Inc.. in Boston, which made a specialty of 
house-wrecking. Like his partner, Mr. 
Swift, he is thoroughh' familiar with every 
branch of the business, having had many 
years of exjierience in the line, and is with- 
out a peer as an organizer in the contract- 
ing business. He is a ]\Iason, member of 
the Cottage Park Yacht llub. and various 
other societies and organizations. 



The initiative in forming a stock ex- 
change in Boston was taken October 13, 
1834. and the start was made with thirteen 
members, who assessetl themselves $100 
each. The 13th of October and thirteen 
original members ! Financiers were evi- 
dentlv not sujierstitious in those days, and 
the growth of the exchange and of Ijoston 
as a financial centre, in the eighty-two years 
that have intervened, show that they had 
no occasion to be. 



36S 



THE BOOK OF ROSTOX 



JOSEPH P. MANNING COMPANY 



Joseph P. Manning, president of the 
Joseph P. Manning Co., was born in Ire- 
land, January 8, 1866. He is the son of 




jnsi:PH p. MANNING 



Jdhn and I-'Uen ( Dolan ) }*Ianning, and, I)e- 
ing brought to America in 1871, was edu- 
cated in the public schools of South Boston. 
He has been engaged in the wholesale to- 
bacco business since June 30, 1881, at which 
time he entered the employ of James Ouinn. 
He became partner in the business in 1894, 
and continued this association until 1899, 
when he became a member (if the firm of 
McGreenery & ^Manning, 24 Fulton Street. 
In 1913, Mr. McGreenery retiring, the busi- 
ness was continued under its jiresent title, 
and the large building was soon found in- 
adequate for the rai)idl_\' growing business. 
In addition to his interest in the firm of 
Joseph P. ^Manning Co., of which he is 
president and treasurer, Mr. ^Manning is a 
director of the Commonwealth Trust Co., the 
Federal Trust Co., and Greenlaw Manufac- 
turing Co., and is secretary of the Board of 
Trustees of the Boston City Hospital. He 
is independent in politics and is a member of 



the Algoncjuin, Boston Press, Boston Ath- 
letic Association, Boston Art, ami the Wol- 
laston Golf Clubs. 

Mr. Manning was married July 11, 1900, 
to Katherine M. O'Donnell of Boston, and 
has three children, Mildred, Katherine and 
N'irginia Manning. 

JAMES F. LOGAN 

James F. Logan, vice-president and assist- 
ant treasurer of the Joseph P. Manning Co., 
was born in Jersey City, N. J., February i. 
1872, and was educated at St. Mary's School 
in the city of his birth. In 1888 he became an 
employee of the Western Lhiion Telegraph 
Co., four years later becoming associated 
with the wholesale tobacco firm of lames 




FORMER LOCATION OF THE JOSEPH P. MANNING CO. 
24 FULTON STREET 

Ouinn & Co. In 1898, he again became an 
employee of the telegraph company, and in 
1905 returned to the wholesale tobacco busi- 



TIIF. BOOK OF BOSTON 



36^> 



ness witli tlie hrin (it .Mc( irec-iKTv & Man- 
ning, whicli later liecaiiie the Joseph P. 
Maniiini;- (_'<>. Mr. Los^an is a son of 
Michael and Mary ( Bray | Loj;an, and on 
lanuarx' 20, 1892, lie was married to Mary 
A. }ilannin£r. 



t<in. The salesmen, thirty-nine in nnmlier. 
also use autos in calling; npon the tratle, and 
cover the territory within a radius of twenty 
miles, while the halance of New England is 
handled by railway service. A staff of ma- 
chinists and extra chatiffenrs are employed 



<.»<^. ■< 









WilHrf^-'^ 





M-U miiDiM. II nil jc,Mi>n v. manning CO., 49ST0 51: atianhc a\knii; 



The Joseph P. Manning Co. is the largest 
house in the United States in its line, with 
one exception. It was the first commercial 
concern in Boston to adopt automobiles for 
delivery service, and now uses fourteen 
motor trucks, with a garage in South Bos- 



in case of breakdowns or other acciilents. 
When the business had outgrown the old 
building at 24 Fulton .Street, which had 
eighteen thousand, six hundred feet of floor 
space, the company selected the structure at 
500 Atlantic Avenue. This site takes in 



370 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



the l)uilding from 498 to 512 Atlantic Av- 
enue. It is three stories and a basement, 
with thirty thousand feet of floor space, 




JAMES F. LOGAN 

every inch of which has been utilized. The 
principal business done by the house is 
tobacco, cigars, cigarettes and pipes, and 
some idea of its magnitude can be gleaned 
from the fact that the annual turnover is 
five million dollars, the number of employees 
is one hundred and fifty-six, and the annual 
sales of briar and fancy pipes is a quarter 
million dollars. The daily sale of cigarettes 
amounts to one million, five hundred thou- 
sand. The building required for the tran- 
saction of this immense business has been 
fitted up with every modern contrivance for 
rapid handling and shipment of goods. The 
executive offices are beautifully furnished, 
while rest and lounging rooms have been 
prepared for the comfort of the many 
customers. 

Many streets in old Boston had Ijeen 
named for London streets, but after the 
Revolution the citizens made haste to 
change most of these names for others of 
a more republican flavor. 




CHARLES W. SHERBURNE 



CHARLES WILLIAM SHERBURNE 

Charles W. Sherburne, who was during 
his lifetime interested in many commercial 
enterprises, was born in Boston, October 13, 
1839. He was edu- 
cated in the public 
schools and began 
his business career 
with the old \'er- 
mont and Canada 
Railroad. He later 
entered the railway 
supply business 
w-ith W i 1 1 i a m s, 
Page & Co., and 
after a short time 
with this concern 
organized the firm 
of Sherburne & 
Co., manufacturers 
of railroad and 
contractors' supplies en April i, 1863. Mr. 
Sherburne was a picneer in the develop- 
ment of many of the greatest improvements 
in railroad construction, maintenance and 
operation. He was also president of the 
Armstrong Transfer Express Co., the Star 
Brass Mfg. Co., and was a director of the 
Armstrong Dining & News Co. He was a 
member of the Algonquin, Exchange, East- 
ern Yacht and Corinthian Clubs and the 
Beacon Society. He died Maj' 6, 191 5, 
leaving one son and two daughters. The 
son, Charles H. Sherburne, succeeded his 
father in his various enterprises. 

D. WHITING & SONS 

The firm of D. \\'hiting & Sons was 
established in \\'ilton, N. H., by David 
\Vhiting in 1857, and is now conducted 
by Isaac S. Whiting, John K. ^\■hiting, 
David Whiting and Charles F. Whiting. 
The business consists in the sale of milk, 
cream and Initter throughout Greater 
Boston, and in the purchase of milk and 
cream throughout New England. The main 
plant and oft^ces are at 570 Rutherford 
Avenue, Boston. 



THK HOOK OI" HOSTOX 



371 



THE AMERICAN TOOL AXl) MACHINE COMPANY 



The American Tool and Maciiine Com- 
])any. w liose large jjlant at Hyde Park, 
Mass., gives employment to between three 




MKLVILI.E H. BARKER (DECEASED) 

and f(inr luin<lred persons, is one of the (jld- 
est industrial concerns in New England. 
The works were established in 1S50 by 
George H. Fox & Company, and the com- 
pany was incorporated in 1864. with a capi- 
talization of $100,000. The annual turnover 
of the concern has increased fifty per 
cent, in recent years, and now amounts to 
nearly three-ijuarters of a milliun dollars. 
The ])ro(luct of the com])an\' includes sugar 
machinery, brass finishers' lathes, belt knife, 
leather splitting machines, and sjiecial ma- 
chinery, such as centrifugal machines for 
sugar, chemicals, smokeless powder, etc. 
The territory covered is the entire world, 
and the company's great success is uncpies- 
tionably due to the ])ersonal supervision of 
its management. The officers are : \\'alter 
M. I'acon, president ; M. H. Barker, gen- 
er;d manager, and II. W. W Isworth, 



treasurer. The board of directors is made 
up of the president, general manager and 
E. L. Clatlin, Francis K. ISacon and Jacob 
Thaxter. 

Melville 11. Barker, who was general 
manager of the cumijany up to the time of 
luv de.ith. March (). ii;[6, had been con- 
nected with this cimcern fur fort\-one \'ears, 
and every luomeiU of his time during that 
long period had been devoted to the im- 
provement of buildings, the installation of 
llie most mmlcrn machinery and tools, and 
to the extension of the companv's trade terri- 
tory. The results are almost un])recedented 
success along business lines and one of the 
linest luachine works in New England. Mr. 
Harker was born in iSridgcton, "Maine, 
August JO, iX4,S, and educated in Lhicago, 
lllin(;is, ;nid Madison, Wisconsin. He com- 
]ileted his schocjjing in 1864 and was first 
employed at Lawrence, .Mass., but in a sh(jrt 
while became associated with the .Vmerican 
ro(]l and Machine Company as mechanical 
engineer. He was sul)sequently advanced to 
the position of general manager and elected 
to the directorate, two ])ositions he retained 
at the time of his death. In addition to his 
interest in this company, Mr. Barker was at 
one time connected with the I'Aerett Mills 
.•md the Atlantic Mills, both of L.'iwrence, 
Mass. He was a meiuber of the Boston City 
Club, I'.oston Art Club, Boston Engineers 
Club, I'.ngineers Club of New York, Ma- 
chinery Club of New ^'ork, the National 
Metal Trades .\ssociation, of which he was 
president in 1907-08, and the National 
I-"ounders' Association. He was a Republi- 
can in politics, Init had never sought or held 
elective office. The offices of the company 
are at 109 ]*.cach Street. 



THE BOOK OF HOSTOX 



THE J. W. 

The J. \V. Maguire Co., exclusive 
aeents for the Pierce-Arrow car for 
\Vorcester Countv, the entire territory of 




JAMES W. MAGl'IRF. 

Eastern Massachusetts and the State of 
New Hanipsliire, was established 1)\' J. \\ . 
Maguire, now the only member of the firm. 
Mr. Maguire's history from early bo\'hood 
until he attained prominence in the fields of 
commerce and finance was a succession of 
struggles and reverses that were finally 
overcome l)y perseverance, indomitable will 
and an inherent ability to sell goods. He 
was born in South Maiden, now West Ever- 
ett, December 19, 1865, the son of Patrick 
and Mary E. (McDermott) Maguire, and 
attended the public schools in that locality. 
His parents resided on a farm and, being in 
ill health, nuich of the work devolved upon 
the son, who surprised the neighbors by buy- 
ing and selling cattle when only eight years 
old. His father and mother died before he 
was sixteen and, determining to give up 
farm work, he secured a position with the 
Boston Rubber Shoe Co. as stock boy at 
$2.40 per week. The boy's determination 



MAGUIRE CO. 

to advance was shown 1)_\' his a])plication to 
the details of the business and he was soon 
manufacturing women's shoes. Ileing trans- 
ferred to the men's department he increased 
his earnings to $2.50 and $2.60 per day. 
This was good wages, even for a man, at 
that time, and the older workmen protested, 
thinking the large wages paid to a boy would 
result in the reduction of the price per pair 
and thus curtail their earning capacit}-. The 
controversy letl to Mr. j\Iaguire's retire- 
ment and he secured a position with the 
Para Ruljber Co., at South Framingham. 
After three years he returned to the Boston 
Rubber Shoe Co., and soon began selling 
l)ic}cles on the instalment plan and was suc- 
cessful. His next venture was in the wood- 
working liusiness, where he met his first re- 
verse, losing all he had invested with the 
exception of less than one hundred dollars. 
He returned to the bic}-cle business as sales- 
man for a firm with a branch in Maiden, 
and ujxju the closing of this store Ijegan 
Ijusiness for himself and succeeded in mak- 
ing $31,000 in six years. He then invaded 
the automobile field, and in two years and 
a half was again penniless. This did not 
discourage him, however, and in 1903 he 
secured a partner with capital and came to 




PIERCE CAR OF OLD MODEL 



Boston to handle autnmnliiles exclusivel}'. 
The firm lost money the first }-ear and just 
about broke even the second. Dissatisfac- 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



373 



titin arose the fnlldw int;' year ami .Mr. Ma- 
quire's partner retired. Since that time 
Mr. ]\[aj^uire lias been very successful and 
has matle a wimdcrfnl rec<iril in personal 
salesmanship. lie is at present the owner 
of several |)arcels of real estate and the old 
homestead farm at West h'verett, is a direc- 
tor of the l-lverett Trust (.'o., the Xew h.n^- 
land Casualty Co., and the I'.oston .\utonio- 
hile Association, Inc. lie is a member of 
the Press C'lul), I'.elmont Countr\- Club. Mel- 
rose Clnb, J'.ellevue (Inlf ('Inl) of .Melmse. 
Commonwealth (iolf I'lul) of JSosti n. Kern- 
wood Club, the ( )d(l Fellows, and is 
a Thirt\ -second Degree Mason. lie was 
married in 1S85 to Agnes Cor]>ett and has 
twi> chiklren, a boy and a girl, llis winter 
home is at 17 Stratford .\\enue, Melrose, 
and his summers are sjjcnt at South 1 Ian- 
son. His Inisiness address is 743 l!o\lston 
Street, Boston. The car shown herewith, 
Avhich is Ijeing driven b}- Mr. ^Maguire, was 
one of the first manufactured by the I'ierce 
Conipan}-. It had no reverse, and although 
of ])rimitive construction and in striking 
Cf.ntrast to the mechanically perfect and 
beautiful cars turned out b}' the company 
to-da_\', was one at the best then in existence 
and it was the stepping-stone of .Mr. Ma- 
guire's success. 



j.X.Ml'.S 1 

lames V. Bliss, senii 
of James Bliss & Co., 
the late James liliss, 
-\pril 7. 1X47. The 
tirm has always 
done a large busi- 
ness in all shi]) sup- 
p 1 i e s. Mr. I'.lis^ 
was formerh' jiresi- 
dent and director of 
the Roxl)ur\- and 
the Highland Co- 
i"])erative l)anks of 
i\oxbur\- Crossing, 
lloston. He is a 
nieml)er of the B.os- 
ton Art, I'"-xchange, 
Boston Chy. and 
b'conomic I'lubs, 
the Boston Cham- 
ber of Commerce, the 
tal)Ie -Mechanics .\ssoc 
LibrarN' .Association, o 
dent for three years, ; 
Scottish Rite .Masonic 
])ublican and was for 
of the Massachusetts 
tati\es for Ward T 
business address is 91 



■■, IddSS 

ir member of the tirm 

founded in i'^32 b)- 

was born in lioston 




jA.\ll...i F. BLISS 

Massachusetts Chari- 
iation, the Mercantile 
f which he was jiresi- 
;uid all the York and 
bodies. He is a Re- 
tw 1 1 _\ears a member 
House of Re])resen- 
weh'e, Bostiin. His 
Broad .Street. 



FL 



«3te. 




I •■ i^' »». -- '■ 



RKVKKK BKACH, I.OOKIN<; TO\V.\RD THE CITY OF I.YNN 



374 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



George W. 



GEORGE W. 
Armstrong, who organized 



the Armstrong Transfer Company, and 
buih up the most complete transfer system 




GEORGE W. ARMSTRONG (DECEASED) 

ever operated in New England, was born in 
Boston, August ii, 1836, the son of David 
and ManaHa (Lovering) Armstrong. The 
founder of the American branch of the fam- 
ily was one of the original Scotch settlers of 
Londonderry, N. H., whose ancestors were 
of the Clan Armstrong who dwelt on the 
"Debatable Land" of Scotland near the Eng- 
lish border, and who emigrated to the 
North of Ireland, and from there to Amer- 
ica. The maternal ancestry was descended 
from Governor Edward Winslow. 

Mr. Armstrong was educated in the Bos- 
ton Public Schools, but was forced to leave 
school and go to work by reason of the 
serious illness of his father. He became a 
penny-postman, with the whole of South 
Boston as his district, and was next em- 
ployed on the South Boston Gazette, the 
Sunday Nc7i's, and as a newsboy on State 
Street. The olistacles encoimtered at this 
period were enough to deter and discourage 



ARMSTRONG 

the average boy, but instead they imbued Mr. 
Armstrong with determination that brought 
success. This was at first meager, but he 
persisted until he rose to a commanding 
.position in the business world. Mr. Arm- 
strong's father died in the autumn of 1851, 
and the following March he became a news- 
boy on the Boston & Albany Railroad, con- 
tinuing in this work for nine years. He 
was then successively employed on the road 
as brakeman, baggage-master, sleeping car 
conductor and conductor on the regular 
train until he was made manager of the 
news service of the Company. He resigned 
this position to become half-owner of the 
restaurant and newsroom in the Boston & 
Albany Statical, and in 187 1 sole owner of 
the business. He had previously purchased 
King's Baggage Express and organized the 
Armstrong Transfer, adding passenger 
coaches to the service. In 1882, with the 
co-operation of Edward A. Taft, he estab- 
lished the "Armstrong Transfer Company," 
becoming president, with Mr. Taft as gen- 
eral manager. The news business of the 
Fitchburg Railroad, of which Mr. Arm- 
strong became owner in 1869, was extended 
over the entire Hoosac Tunnel line in 1877, 
and he was in addition proprietor of the 
news business over the Eastern Railroad, the 
restaurants and newsrooms in the Boston 
station and along the line at Portsmouth, 
Wolfborough Junction and Portland. He 
also owned the restaurants and newsrooms 
on the Boston & Albany line at South 
Framingham, Palmer, Springfield and Pitts- 
field. 

Mr. Armstrong was a man of wonderful 
executive ability. He possessed unusual 
perspicacity, probably inherited from his 
Scottish forbears, and was constantly ex- 
tending his system in most profitalile sec- 
tions. At the time of his death, which 
occurred June 30, 1901. his newsboys were 
upon every train leaving Boston, and he 
owned and personally controlled the dining 
and newsrooms on the Boston & Albany, 
the Boston & Maine, the Fitchburg and Old 
Colony systems. 



THK BOOK OF BOSTON 



M r> 



Mr. Arnistri.ing was niarrii.-il I~)cci.'nilHT 
lo, 1868, to Miss Louise Marston of 
Bridgewater, X. H., who died February 17, 
1880. His second wife was Miss Flora E., 
daughter of Dr. Reuben Greene of Boston. 
He was the father of three children, 
Mabelle, Ethel and George Robert Arm- 
strong. Mr. Armstrong was noted for his 
strict integrity. He was aggressively pro- 
gressive, lieing deeply interested in the ad- 
vancement of Boston's interests, and his 
death was universally regretted by a large 
circle of friends and business associates. 

CHARLES EDWARD OSGOOD 

Charles E. Osgooil, president antl direct'jr 
of the C. E. Osgood Company. 744-756 
Washington Street, was Ixirn Ma_\- 21, 1855, 

in Rt).\bur\-, Mass. 
He attended the 
Ri i.\Iiur\' |)ul)lic and 
Latin schools, and 
in 1875 became as- 
sociated with his 
father in the auc- 
tion and commis- 
sion business at 17O 
Tremont Street, 
and from this busi- 
ness gradually de- 
veloped the largest 
credit furniture 
house in New Eng- 
land. The founder 
oiARLKs E. ns(;noD ,,f ^\^^, busiucss re- 

tired in 1889, since which time C. K. Osgood 
has been in direct control. He is a member 
of the Harvard Congregational Church, the 
Masonic Fraternity, Odd Fellows, the An- 
cient and Honorable Artillery Co., City Club, 
and about twenty-five other social organi- 
zations. He is a director of the Boulevard 
Trust Co., the Wizard Co. of Mass., and 
was the first president of the Home Fur- 
nishers Association of Massachusetts. He 
resides in Bro(jkline, and has a beautifid 
summer estate on Lake Massapoag, .Shanm, 
Mass. The C. E. Osgood Company also 
maintain branches in Cambridge and East 
Boston. 




JAMES lillNNEY MUNROE 

James P. Munroe, i)resident of the Mun- 
roe Felt and Paper C(j., was born at Lex- 
ington, June 3, 1862, and was educated at 
the Massachusetts 
Institute of Tech- 
nology, graduating 
in 1882. Until 
1889 he was secre- 
tary to the Facult}-, 
and since i8()7 has 
been a life member 
(now also secre- 
tary) of the Cor- 
])oration of the 
Institute. Mr. Mun- 
roe comes of illus- 
trious Scottish an- 
cestrv, and since 
beginning his busi- 
ness life in 1889 
has l)een actively engaged in civic work. 
He has written books and magazine articles 
and has deHvered many pul)lic addresses 
on educational and historical themes, has 
aided in securing legislation for the develop- 
ment of education, and is a strong advocate 
of vocational training. He has also been 
active in stimulating public appreciation of 
the seriousness of the proljlems involved in 
feeble-mindedness and blindness, being chair- 
man of the Massachusetts Commission for 
the Blind. He is a member of many social 
clubs, educational societies and commercial 
bodies, in a number of which he has served 
as president or other officer. 




JAMES p. MUNR'E 




376 



THE BOOK OP' BOSTON 



HOWE & ERENCH 

A Brief History of One of the Oldest and Most Prominent Wholesale Drug 
AND Chemical Houses in New England 



One of the largest and most prominent 
concerns in New England doing business as 
importers and wholesale dealers in industrial 
drugs and chemicals is the house of Howe 
& French. The business had its beginning 
in 1834, and in 1842 the original firm was 
operating at 49 Blackstone Street, under the 
name of Crocker & Badger, whd were suc- 
ceeded in 1849 'jy ^- I'l- Badger. Two 
rears later, John C. Howe, a brother-in-law 
iif Mr. Badger, who for several years pre- 
viously had served as a clerk in the business, 
was admitted to partnership, the firm be- 
coming C. EI. Badger & Com])any. In 
1859, after the death of Mr. Badger, John 
J. French l.iecame a partner in the business 
under the firm name of Howe & French, 
which has remained unchanged since, and 
at this time the business was conducted at 
69 and 71 Blackstone Street. The firm was 
highly successful during the period of the 
Civil War and the years following, achiev- 
ing a position of great prominence in the 
trade as importers of shellac and manufac- 
turers of isinglass, earning a reputation that 
extended from coast to coast. In 1879 the 
business was removed to 107 ]\Iilk Street, 
where it remained for many }ears. On 
January i, 1909, the large buildings at 99 
and loi Broad Street, corner of Franklin 
Street, were secured, and the offices and 
warerooms have since been located there. 

John C. Howe, the last survivor of the 
old Howe & French finiL died in the fall of 
1 90 1. The business was incorporated in 
1904. The president, Clarence P. Seaverns, 
and the treasurer, William D. Rockwood, 
were boys in the employ of the original 
Howe & French firm, Mr. Rockwood having 
been connected with the business since 1884, 
and Mr. Seaverns since 1889. Both were 
Ijorn in Boston, of old New England ances- 
try, and were educated in the public schools 
of the city. The vice-president of the Com- 
pany, Mr. INIilton S. Thompson, is a native 
of New York and a sraduate of the School 



of Mines of Columbia University. Prior to 
his connection with Howe & French, Mr. 
Thompson had been identified with the drug 
and chemical trade and later w ith the cellu- 
loid manufacturing industry. These gentle- 
men are closely identified and affiliated with 
several large manufacturing enterprises in 
Boston and neighborhood, and with many 
of the banks, clubs and trade associations. 
Their interests are all centered in New Eng- 
land generall}', and in Boston particularlw 
and individually and as a firm the}- are al- 
wa\'S active in any movement that will ad- 
vance the city's position as an industrial and 
commercial centre. 

The firm of Howe & French is capitalized 
at one hundred thousand dollars, and the 
annual business transacted considerably ex- 
ceeds one million dollars. About fifty per- 
sons are enipl<:n-ed, most of whom are native 
New Englanders. The trade territory cov- 
ered includes the whole of New England, 
and the chief products, industrial chemicals, 
are sold to the various textile mills, tan- 
neries and man}- other industrial plants. 
While the firm is essentially a local distrilj- 
utor, handling pharmaceutical and manufac- 
turers' su])plies, they specialize chemicals, 
shellac, gums, waxes and solvents of all 
kinds \\hich are sold throughout the United 
States and Canada. Under the present 
management the jiercentage of increase in 
output has l)een large, due entire]}' to the 
personal supervision of the executive heads, 
who have gathered around them a trained 
corps of able and practical assistants. Every 
detail of the business is carefully looked 
after and prompt shipments, standard prices, 
hig-h-grade goods, courteous treatment and 
strict business integrity have made Howe & 
P'rench factors wherever drugs and chemi- 
cals are sold. The luiildings occupied by the 
firm are large and light, and are especially 
adapted for the quick handling of the goods 
carried in stock. 




aHLTON S. THOMPSON, VIL I,-PRESIDENT 



WILLIAM D. ROCKWUUU, TREASLRER 



31 ^^^ a 




-a _.J!1 Ja 





69-71 DLACKSTONE STREET 99-101 BROAD STREET 

OLD AND NEW BUILDINCS OF HOWE &;iRE\ar 



378 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ELIAS GALASSI 

Elias Galassi, president and treasurer of 
the Galassi Mosaic and Tile Co., was born 
in Italy, July 20, 1875, and was educated in 




ELIAS GALASSI 



local schools of the place of his birth. He 
came to America in 1892 and was employed 
by Sharpless & Watts in Philadelphia. He 
afterwards became associated with the Mur- 
dock Parlor Grate Company of Boston, es- 
pecially in executing the contract for the 
mosaic and tile work in the Public Library 
and State House in Boston, eventually be- 
coming the firm's superintendent. In 1910 
he began business for himself, and since that 
time has executed some of the most impor- 
tant work in New England and in other 
States throughout the Union. For the most 
prominent public and private buildings, it 
is worth mentioning the extension of the 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine 
State Houses; the Portland, Maine, City 
Hall, and City Hall Annex, Boston, Mass. ; 
also completed, recently, work of its line in 
the new Armory Building, Commonwealth 
Avenue. They have and are doing all the 
prominent lunch rooms in the city, also sub- 



way stations and work of its character in 
the New Institute of Technology, Cam- 
bridge, Mass. The Galassi Mosaic and Tile 
Co. is equipped to do the largest work any- 
where in the United States, and to show 
how far afield it goes in the execution of its 
work, it is worthy to mention that the com- 
pany successfully executed the contracts fi r 
the Denver, Colorado, Post Office Building; 
the new High School, Montclair, N. J.; the 
Young Men's Christian Association Buik'.- 
ings in Springfield, Mass., Hartford, 
Conn., and W'insted, Conn., and the n;w 
Court House at Albany, N. Y. All this 
work was executed in the highest st}le of 
art, and was commended by architect, 
builder and general i)ul)lic. The works rf 
the company are at 5 Ash Street, and the 
offices are located at 127 Federal Street. 



Shipbuilding was one of the earliest 
trades practiced to any extent in New Eng- 
land, and the reason for this was plainly the 
necessity for trade which arose as soon as 
the hardy Pilgrims and Puritans were able 
to forsake the soil and spend some of their 
time in other pursuits. 

CHARLES F. STODDER 

The success of Charles F. Stodder, presi- 
dent of the India Alkali Works, is unques- 
tional;)ly due to persistent application and 
continuity of purpose, two traits inherited 
from rugged New England ancestry, who 
were among the settlers of Hingham in 
1642. 

As a young man Mr. Stodder, in 1885, 
became manager of the India Alkali Works, 
and eight years later president and general 
manager, still filling the dual position. He 
is an authority on heavy chemicals and is 
especially interested in "Savogran," a 
widely known material manufactured by 
the company. 

Mr. Stodder is a man of striking per- 
sonality and is popular with l)usiness and 
social associates. He is a member of sev- 
eral societies and has one son, Clement K. 
Stodder, who is a Senior at Harvard. 



THE RnOK OF BOSTOX 



379 



\\AKRI-:\" J;R()'1 
The BiTi'LiT 

\\'arren Brothers Comjiain-, with its ex- 
ecutive offices in Boston and with a large 
manufacturing plant and lal)oratorv situ- 
ated on Potter Street, East Canihridge, was 
organized in the }ear 1900 1)\- the seven sons 
of the late Herbert M. Warren of Newton, 
Mass. (Albert C, Herbert M., Henry J., 
George C, Frederick J., Walter B. and 
Ralph L. Warren), the father being one of 
six brothers celebrated in their time as 
associated as far back as 1S47 in lines 
of business analogous to that of Warren 
Brothers Company, and as inventors of the 
gravel roof. 

One of the (jlder generation was the first 
to pump oil from wells to railroad through 
a pijie line, the ])oint to which he delivered 
the oil to the railroad being then known as 
"Warren Landing," now the city of 
Warren, Pa. 

The chief business of Warren Brothers 
Company is the manufacture, laying and 
sale of the pavement known as "Bitu- 
lithic," constructetl under patents issued to 
the late Frederick J. Warren, president of 
the Warren limthers Company from its 
organizatii;>n until his death in February, 

1905- 

]\Ir. Freilerick J. Warren's early training 

had been in the refineries owned by his 
father and uncles, and these associations 
were the stepping-stones which led his in- 
ventive mind to the discovery of a solution 
of the inherent defects in the pavement with 
which he was familiar. He had travelled 
extensively and it was only natural tliat he 
should see in his invention, which combined 
some of the features of the tar macadam 
and of the sheet asphalt, a resulting pave- 
ment that would to a high degree retain the 
good cjualities of each of these types and 
overcome man}- of the defects. 

Bitulithic is defined in Webster's New 
International I)ictionar\- as "designating a 
kind of paving, the main Ixnly ni which 
consists of broken stone cemented together 
with bitumen or asphalt." 

Bitulithic is distinctly different from 



"HERS COMPANY 

HIC I^.WEMEXT 

(ither f(.irms of asphalt ])avement, in that 
the wearing surface is composed of a com- 
bination of crushed stone, varying in size 
from about one incli to impalpable powder, 
the several sizes being so proportioned that 
each receding size is used in the c|uantity 
re(iuired to fit the voids or air spaces be- 
tween the jireceding coarser particles of 
stone. The result of this gradation is that 
the "mineral aggregate" thus produced is 
within ten \kv cent, i.if the density of 
solid rock. The "mineral aggregate" is 
heated to a temperature of about 300 de- 
grees F., mi.xed with pure asphalt (also in 
a heated condition) in such quantity as to 
coat each and every particle of stone and 
thoroughI\- fill the remaining voids. After 
the proportions have been determined, "the 
mineral aggregate" is passed through a ro- 
tary dryer, from which it is carried b\- an 
elevator and through a rotary screen which 
separates the material into several differ- 
ent sizes. The jiroper proportiims l.)v weight 
of each of these sizes is secured by the use 
of a "multiljeam scale" and the exact re- 
quired amount is weighed out into a "twin 
pug" rotary mixer, where it is coml_)ined 
with the bitulithic cement accurately 
weighed in proper proportions. The mixer 
is then dumped, while hot, into carts or 
trucks and is then hauled to the streets, 
spread and thoroughly rolled with a heavy 
steam roller. Upon this is spread a flush coat 
of special bitulithic cement, thoroughly seal- 
ing and waterproofing the surface. There 
is then applied a thin layer of finely-crushed 
stone, which is rolled into the seal coat, 
making it gritty and thereby affording a 
good foothold for horses and a surface 
upon which automobiles will not skid. 

The advantages claimed for the Bitu- 
lithic pavement over the standard .sheet 
asphalt pavement or any of its modifica- 
tions, such as the so-called asphaltic con- 
crete pavement, are: Creater stabilit\- and 
consequent durability, better foothold, 
greater resiliency, more thoroughly water- 
jjroof and therefore more sanitary. 



380 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



REUBEN GLEASON 

Reuben Gleason, sole surviving partner 
of R. & E. F. Gleason, undertakers, of 335 
Washington Street, Dorchester, was born in 




REUBEN GLEASON 



Boston, August 13, 1846, and was educated 
in the public schools. The business of which 
he is now head was established in 1862, by 
his eldest brother, Sarell, with whom he was 
associated. The founder of the business 
died in 1879, and the firm became R. & E. 
F. Gleason, the latter being another brother, 
who died in 1903. During his career as 
an undertaker, Mr. Gleason has conducted 
funerals for many of the best known people 
in Dorchester and Milton, and has per- 
formed similar service in various parts of 
New England. His estaljlishment is one of 
the largest in Greater Boston, and the ecjuip- 
ment includes four auto hearses, two auto- 
moliiles for mourners, several horse vehicles, 
and an apartment for chapel purposes. 

Mr. Gleason is eighth in descent from 
Thomas Gleason, who was born in Sulgrave, 
Northampton Co., England, in 1607, and 
who settled in Watertown in 1640. Air. 
Gleason is a veteran of the Civil ^\'ar, hav- 



ing gone to the front with Co. I, 42nd Mas- 
sachusetts Volunteers. He is a member of 
the Grand Army of the Republic. 

FRANK S. ^\'ATERMAN 

The undertaking establishment of J. S. 
Waterman & Sons, Inc., has as its presi- 
dent F"rank S. Waterman, who, in the thirt}-- 
seven years he has been identified with 
the I)usiness, has worked indefatigably to 
make it one of the leading establishments in 
its line in the country. Mr. Waterman was 
l)orn September 18. 1862, in a modest house 
at 2326 Washington Street, on the site of 
the present magnificent warehouses and of- 
fices, where his father, Joseph S. Water- 
man, established the luisiness February 21, 
1859, and lived in the dwelling above his 
workroom on the ground floor. Mr. 
Waterman was educated in the public 
schools and in the ]5r\ant & Stratton Com- 
mercial College, after which he became con- 
nected with his father's business. E^pon the 




FRANK S. WATERMAN 



death of the founder, in 1893, the business 
was continued under the same name by Mr. 
Waterman and his brother, George H., who 



Till-: r.OOK OF BOSTON 



381 



(lied in ic;i I, It lias since liccn incurporatcd, 
willi Mr. \\'at(.-rnian as president, and he 
has as associates liis nephew, Jusepli S. 
\\'aterman, 2nd. and his sun, Frank S. 



Waterman, 



During; his term as execu- 



tive head of the concern, Mr. Waterman has 
introchiced many innovations, which have 
resulted in the most efficient management 
and prdduced features that have Ijeen copied 
by many other concerns in the same litie. 
The system, as introduced liy Mr. Water- 
man, gives careful attention to the well- 
being and advancement of the employees, 
and this has produced individual and col- 
lective elficiency of a high order. Mr. 
Waterman attended the Cincinnati School 
of Embalming in 1882, and he holds the 
first diploma ever issued to an embalnier. 
He has served in the Massachusetts \^olun- 
teer Militia, is a member (if the Mas(_)nic 
F'raternity, Odd Fellows, Knights of 
Pythias, Mystic Shrine, Ancient and Hon- 



orable Artillery Cdnipanv', lioston Chamber 
of Commerce, lldstdii Cit\- Club, Massachu- 
setts F"uneral Directors' Ass(jciation and 
many other (irganizatiuns. The firm has 
had charge of the funeral of some of the 
ntost noted persons in recent years, and its 
estalilishment on Washington Street in- 
cludes an elaborately fitted-up chapel for 
mortuary purposes. 



Boston nuist long be memorable among 
the great cities of the world as the place of 
the historic Tea Party. The earliest im- 
porters of tea came to this port, and Bost(jn, 
notwithstanding the extension of the busi- 
ness through the growth of the country, still 
retains her prominence in the tea trade, and 
this city is one (jf the largest distriljuting 
centres for tea. 



The B(jston hospitals and homes for the 
aged and infirm are unsurj)assed in manage- 
ment and equipment by any city in America. 




CORNHILI., A FAMOUS BOSTON THOROUGHFARE. HOME OF THE OLD BOOK STORE CULTI\ ATKU BY 
THE "boston literati" OF THE DAY. LOOKING EAST FROM COURT STREET 




O 
CO 

d 
o 

o 

H 
U 

< 

5 



K 
H 
Oi 
O 

.J 
< 

O 



THE HOOK OP^ F.OSTOX 






\\AL\\URT11 AlAXLTACTURING COMPANY 




C. C. WALWORTH 
DECEASED 



The \\'al\v(.)rth Manufacturing Ci:impan\-, 
cne of the largest imhistrial CDUcerns in 
New England, was established in New York 
in 1842 b}- ^lessrs. J- J. Walworth and 
Joseph Nason under the firm name of 
"AX alwdrth & Nason." A year later a 
Boston plant was established by Mr. J- J. 
Walworth under the name of "J. J. Wal- 
worth & Company." hi 1872 the business 
was inc(irpcirated under its present title 
(Walworth ^lanufacturing Company) with 
Air. J. J. Walworth as president, Alarshall 
S. Scudder as treasurer and C. C. Wal- 
worth as tnanager of the mechanical de- 
])artment. In the following }ear Mr. C. C. 
^\'alworth was elected vice-])resident and 
yiv. E. C. Hammer succeetled Mr. Scud- 
der in 1875 as treasurer, wlin in turn was 
succeeded by Mr. George H. Craves in 
1886. From 1880 to 1908, I\Ir. (leorge 1!. 
Little served as vice-president and was suc- 
ceeded by Mr. Charles C. Hoyt. who had 
been for some time a director of the coni- 
pany. Mr. Theodore W. Little was elected 
vice-president in 1913. Mr. J. J. Walworth 
retired as president in 1891 and was fol- 
lowed by Mr. C. C. Walworth until his 
death in 1894, at which time Mr. Wallace 



L. Pierce was elected president, and held 
the office until 1913. Mr. Howard Coon- 
ley, a successful Chicago manufacturer, was 
at this time offered and accepted the ofifice 
of president. The ])lant, originally located 
in Cambridgeport, was moved in 1882 to 
City Point, South Boston, where it now 
tccupies thirteen acres of land, bordering 
I n the reserve channel, and served with an 
industrial railway connecting with the 
N. \., X. H. & H. Railroad. There is now 
in the variijus buildings including the gray 
inn and malleable foundries and drop 
forge shdp. about 525,000 scj. ft. of floor 
space, and in busy times al)out 1,300 men 
are employed. The success uf the business 
A\as largelx- due to the ingenuity and abil- 
ity of Mr. C. C. Walworth, who was a 
pi: neer in his line and the first to develop 
a range of sizes and weights for valves and 
fittings. He invented and built the first 
machine for doing multiple work; was the 
first one t(j develop a satisfactorv radiator 
for steam heating purposes and was a power 
in the development of tools for the steam 
fitting trade. The company's products con- 
sist of cast iron, malleable iron, brass and 
steel valves and fittings fur all purposes; 
A\alw(jrth die plates, pipe cutters, Stillson 
w renches, taps and reamers, etc. The com- 
I)any also are large fabricators of pipe and 
pil)e Ijends, and cater particularly to high- 
pressure ])(iwer ])lants. The e.Kecutive 
offices are located at the works at First and 
O Streets, City Point, with branch stores 
at 142 High Street, Boston; 19-21 Cliff' 
Street, New York City, and 220-222 North 
Desplaines Street, Chicago, 111. Foreign 
branches are located in London, Paris, 
Bremen, Brus.sels and Johannesburg, with 
sales offices at Los Angeles, Cal. ; Dallas, 
Te.xas; Buenos .Aires, Argentine, Sydney, 
Australia, and Havana, Culja. 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 




Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER XIX 



THE BAR OF BOSTON 

Some of the Leaders of the Legal Profession of the Past Whose Brilliance and 

Learning in the Law Have Made the City Known in the Courts of 

State and Nation — Old-Time and Modern Customs 




SHE first practicing attorneys 
in Boston had a hard time 
of it. They were Thomas 
Lechford and Herbert Pel- 
ham, both London-bred to 
the law. Both after a few 
years retnrned to England, disgusted, and 
Lechford wrote a book on his melancholy 
experiences. 

Lechford, of Clement's Inn, came to Bos- 
ton in 1637. He found attorneys discoun- 
tenanced here, though not actually forbid- 
den. A prisoner or suitor might plead his 
own cause, or a friend might appear in his 
behalf, but not for a fee. Lechford, for 
going to a jury and pleading with them out 
of court, was "debarred from pleading any 
man's cause hereafter unless his own, and 
admonished not to presume to meddle be- 
yond what he shall be called to by the 
Court." Thereafter the ilnhappy lawyer en- 
deavored to maintain himself as a scrivener, 
and he obtained some employment from the 
magistrates. But it profited him little. "I 
am forced," he writes, "to get my living by 
writing petty things which scarce finds me 
in bread ; and therefore sometimes I look to 
planting of corn, but have not yet an house 
of my own to put my head in, or any stock 
going." 

It was not until 1701, in Province times, 
that attorneys were recognized as officers of 
the Court. They were required to take this 
oath before practicing: 



" You shall do no falsehood, or consent to any 
to be done in the Court, and if you know of any to 
be done you shall give knowledge thereof to the 
justices of the Court, or some of them, that it may 
be reformed. You shall not wittingly or willingly 
promote, sue, or procure to be sued, any false or 
unlawful suit nor give any aid or consent to the 
same. You shall delay no man for lucre or malice, 
but you shall use yourself in the office of an attorney 
within the Court to the best of your learning and 
discretion, and with all good fidelity as well to the 
Courts as to your clients." 

The same act in which this form of oath 
was prescribed fixed the fee to be allowed an 
attorney. In the Superior Court of Judi- 
cature it was to be twelve shillings; in the 
Superior Court of Common Pleas, ten shil- 
lings. By an act of 1708 parties were pro- 
hibited from employing more than two at- 
torneys, and no attorney was to refuse his 
services provided he were tendered the legal 
fee. 

Benjamin Lynde was the first Massachu- 
setts-born law)er to be regularly educated to 
the profession, and it has been asserted that 
he was the first trained lawyer on the bench. 
Though born in Salem, and making that 
town his residence through the larger part 
of his life, his legal service was connected 
almost wholly with Boston. He was grad- 
uated from Harvard College in 1686, and in 
1692 went to London, where he became a 
student at law in the IMiddle Temple. In 
1697 he was called to the bar. The same 
year he returned to Massachusetts with a 
commission as advocate general of the 
Court of Admiralty of Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, and Rhode Island; and established 



Tin-: r.noK ()i-~ bostox 



3S5 



himself in Boston. In 1699 he married a 
Salem lady and removed his residence again 
to Salem. He was appointed a judge of the 
Su|)eri()r Court nf Judicature in 17 12, and 
in 1729 was matle chief justice. He retired 
from the bench in 1745, and died in 1749. 
His son, IJenjamin Lynde, Jr., born in 
Salem in 1700, graduated frdui Harvarel in 
1718, and educated to the law under his 
father's direction, and an uncle's — Colonel 
S. I'.rown — also became a judge, and suc- 
ceeded his father on the Superior l)ench. 
He was first appointed, in 1739, a justice 
of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for 
Essex County. Then, in the }ear of the 
elder L\nde's resignation from the Superior 
bench, 1745. he was made a justice of that 
court, and in 1769 was elevated to the chief 
justiceship. He resigned in 1771, and was 
subsequentl}' appointed judge of probate for 
Essex County, which berth he held till his 
death, in 1781. The Lyndes, when living 
in Boston, — Simon, land speculator, father 
of Benjamin, senior, antl the two Ben- 
jamins, father and son, resided at the old 
West End, on the lane which Ijecame Lynde 
Street, named for the family. 

Jeremiah Gridley, who flourished in the 
law between 1742 and 1767, has been called 
the 'leather of the Boston Bar." Born in 
Boston in 1705, graduated from Harvard, 
1725, Gridley first studied divinity and 
taught a Boston school. Then he became an 
editor, founding the IVcckly RcJicarsal in 
1 73 1, more purely literary than any of its 
contemporaries, w hich ran for a year. After- 
ward, when he had liegun the practice of 
law, he edited for a while the Aiiicrkan 
.][tuja.::inc ami Historical Chronicle started 
up in 1743. During almost all of his career 
at the bar he occupied the position of attor- 
ney general. In 1761 he acted as king's at- 
torney in defending the ^^'rits of Assistance, 
with his former pupil, James Otis, against 
him. As a lawyer he is described as "of a 
daring and fearless spirit. " Possessed of 
extensive and accurate learning he became 
one of the most eminent lawyers of the 
Province. His ofifice was a favorite place 
with students of talent and ambition. 



Among his pupils, besides (_)tis, who became 
distinguished in the profession, were (Jxen- 
bridge Thacher, William Cushing, Ben- 
jamin Prat, afterward chief justice of New 
York, John Adaius. He urged upon them 
above all else the thorough study of the law. 
"Pursue the study of the law rather than 
the gain of it," he counselled John Adams; 
"Pursue the study of the law rather than 
of the briers, but give your main attention 
to the study of it." 

Before Gridley, and as eminent, was John 
Read, his predecessor in the attorney gen- 
eralship. James ( )tis characterized Read as 
the "greatest common lawyer the country 
ever saw." Knajip, in his "Biographical 
Sketches of Eminent Lawyers," spoke of 
him as "the pride of the bar, the light of the 
law, and chief among the wise, the witty,, 
and the eloc|uent." He was a Harvard 
graduate, 1697, and, like Gridley, first 
studied divinit}'. He took up the study of 
law after preaching some time acceptably ^ 
and was admitted to the bar about 1720. 
He was chosen attorney-general three years, 
after, and served in that station till 1735. 
He was a memlier of the General Court for 
several years from 1738, and was the first 
lawyer chosen to that body. He was one of 
the counsel for the Province in its contest 
with Rhode Island over the boundary line. 
He died in 1749. Davis, in the Suffolk 
County History, ranks him as "probably the 
ablest law_\er in Massachusetts before the 
Revolution." 

So late as 1 768 there were 1 jut eleven bar- 
risters in Boston, or Suffolk County, and 
the whole number in the Province was only 
twenty-five. The eleven Suffolk barristers^ 
as enumerated 1)\' Davis, were : Richard 
Dana, Benjamin Kent, James Otis, Jr.,. 
Samuel Fitch, William Read, Samuel Swift, 
Benjamin Gridley. Samuel Ouincy, Robert 
Auchmuty, and Arthur Cazeneau, of Bos- 
ton, and Jonathan Adams of Braintree. 
After 1768 thirty more were called in Mas- 
sachusetts, of whom five were of Boston : 
Sampson S. Blowers, Benjamin Hitchborn„ 
William Tudor, Perez Morton, and William 
Wetmore. No barristers were called after 
1789. 



386 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



The title i)f barrister appears to have been 
first used in the Province courts by Thomas 
Newton, who came to Boston from Eng- 
land, in 1688, then a young man, and began 
practice here; in 1691 he was the prose- 
cuting officer in the "witchcraft" trials in 
Salem. Thereafter the title was used occa- 
sionally by the elder members of the bar for 
nearly three-quarters of a century. Then, 
in 1 76 1, the Superior Court determined that 
three years' probation in a lower court was 
necessary to become a barrister. In 1766 
this term was extended. In 1782 the Su- 
preme Court was authorized to confer the 
degree of barrister-at-law. This, however, 
was done only for a short time. None was 
conferred after 1784. The term barrister 
was abolished in 1806 and that of counsel- 
lor was recognized for the first time by the 
Supreme Judicial Court. In 1836 the dis- 
tinction between counsellor and att(irney 
was abolished. 

No specific requirements for admission to 
the bar, beyond the oath prescribed in the 
law of 1 701, seem to have been established 
by the Court, no definite term of study re- 
quired as a qualification, till 1781, when this 
entry appears on the records of the Superior 
Court of Judicature : 

" Whereas, learning and literary accomplishments 
are necessary as well to promote the happiness as to 
preserve the freedom of the people, and the learning 
of the law when duly encouraged and rightly directed 
being as well peculiarly subservient to the great and 
good purpose aforesaid, as promotive of public and 
private justice; and the Court being at all times 
ready to bestow peculiar marks of approbation upon 
the gentlemen of the bar who, by a close application 
to the study of the science they profess, by a mode 
of conduct which gives a conviction of the rectitude 
of their minds, and a fairness of practice that does 
honor to the profession of the law, shall distinguish 
themselves as men of science, honor, and integrity: 
Do order that no gentleman shall be called to the 
degree of Barrister until he shall merit the same by 
his conspicuous bearing, ability, and honesty; and 
that the Court will, of their own mere motion, call 
to the Bar such persons as shall render themselves 
worthy as aforesaid; and that the manner of calling 
to the Bar shall be as follows: The gentleman who 
shall be a candidate shall stand within the Bar, the 
Chief Justice, or in his absence the senior Justice, 
shall, in the name of the Court, repeat to him the 
qualifications necessary for a Barrister-at-law; shall 
let him know that it is a conviction in the mind of 
the Court of his being possessed of these qualifica- 
tions that induces them to confer the honor upon 
hi;ii; and shall solemnly charge him so to conduct 



himself as to be of singuFar service to his country 
by exerting his abilities for the defence of her 
constitutional freedom; and so to demean himself 
as to do honour to the Court and Bar." 

The next year, 1782, the act establishing 
the Supreme Judicial Court gave this Court 
authority to regulate the admission of attor- 
neys as well as the creation of barristers- 
at-law. 

Long before the estal)lishment of the rule 
by the Superior Court in 1781, however, the 
student who could be competent for admis- 
sion to this bar, and to take a leading posi- 
tion in the profession, was, or felt, obhged 
to follow a pretty elaborate course of read- 
ing. John Adams, in his Diary, relates with 
picturesque detail his interview with Gridley 
when he came to town to prepare for admis- 
sion to the Suffolk bar, and the tasks which 
the "Father of the Boston Bar" set for him : 

" 24. [October] Tuesday [1758]. Rode to Boston; 
arrived at about half after ten; went into the Court 
House and sat down by Mr. Paine at the lawyer's 
table. I felt shy, under awe and concern; for 
Mr. Gridley, Mr. Prat, Mr. Otis, Mr. Kent and 
Mr. Thacher were all present and looked sour. I 
had no acquaintance with anybody but Paine and 
Ouincy, and they took but little notice. However, 
I attended court steadily all day, and at night went 
to consort with Samuel Ouincy and Dr. Gardiner. 
There I saw the most spacious and elegant room, 
the gayest company of gentlemen, and the finest 
row of ladies that ever I saw. [Adams at this time 
was twenty-three]; but the weather was dull, and I 
so disordered, that I could not make one half the 
observations that I wanted to make. 

" 25. Wednesday. Went in the morning to Mr. 
Gridley and asked the favor of his advice what steps 
to take for an introduction to the practice of law in 
this county. He answered, ' Get sworn.' Ego. 
' But in order to do that, sir, as I have no patron 
in this county' — G. T will recommend you to the 
Court; mark the day the Court adjourns to in order 
to make up judgments; come to town that day, and 
in the mean time I will speak to the bar; for the 
bar must be consulted, because the Court always 
inquires if it be with the consent of the bar.' 

" Then Mr. Gridley inquired what method of 
study I had pursued; what Latin books I read, 
what Greek, what French? What I had read upon 
rhetoric? Then he took his commonplace book and 
gave me Lord Hale's advice to a student of the 
common law; and when I had read that, he gave 
me Lord C. J. Reeve's advice to his nephew in the 
study of the common law. Then he gave me a 
letter from Dr. Dickins, Professor of Law at the 
L'niversity of Cambridge, to him, pointing out a 
method of studying the civil law; then he turned 
to a letter he wrote to Judge Lightfoot, Judge of 
the .'\dmiralty in Rhode Island, directing to a method 
of studying the admiralty law. Then Mr. Gridley 




rtMbhKTO.N SQUAIU., LOOKING NOKTH, THE COURT HOL'SE OX THE LEFT 

AND OFFICE BUILDINCS ON THE RIGHT, LARGELY TENANTED 

BY LAWYERS AND COURT OFFICES 



388 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



run a comparison between the business and studies 
of a lawyer, a gentleman of the bar in England, and 
those of one here: A lawyer in this country must 
studv common law, and civil law, and natural law, 
and admiralty law; and must do the duty of a 
counsellor, a lawyer, an attorney, a solicitor, and 
even of a scrivener; so that the difficulties of the 
profession are much greater than in England. ' The 
difficulties that attend the study may discourage 
some, but they never discouraged me.' (Here is 
conscious superiority.) ' I have a few pieces of 
advice to give you, Mr. Adams. One is, to pursue 
the study of the law rather than the gain of it; 
pursue the gain of it enough to keep out of the 
briers, but give your main attention to the study of 
it. The next is, not to marry early; for an early 
marriage will obstruct your improvement; and, in 
the next place, it will involve you in expense. An- 
other thing is, not to keep much company, for the 
application of a man who aims to be a lawyer must 
be incessant; his attention to his books must be 
constant, which is inconsistent with keeping much 
company. In the study of law, the common law be 
sure deserves your first and last attention; and he 
has conquered all the difficulties of this law who is 
master of the Institute. You must conquer the 
Institute. The road of science is much easier now 
than it was when I set out; I began with Coke- 
Littleton, and broke through.' I asked his advice 
about studying Greek. He answered, ' It is a matter 
of mere curiosity.' 

" After this long and familiar conversation we went 
to Court, attended all day, and in the evening I went 
to ask Mr. Thacher's [Oxenbridge Thacher] con- 
currence with the bar; drank tea and spent the 
whole evening — upon original sin, origin of evil, 
the plan of the universe, and at last upon law." 

Adams describes the ceremony of his in- 
duction as an attorney by the Superior 
Court, in 1761 : 



" 14. [October, 1761] 
[Samuel Quincy] and 
Superior Court. It is 
since I began the study 
three years since I was 
[1758] ... Mr. Gridley 
right hand and said, ' M 
rose up; then he bowed 
I walked out." 



Saturday. Brother Quincy 
I were sworn before the 
now more than five years 
of the law; and it is about 
sworn at the Inferior Court, 
rose up and bowed to his 
r. Quincy,' when Mr. Quincy 
to me, ' Mr. Adams,' when 



Then Mr. Gridlc}- made a speech com- 
mending the accompHshments and character 
of the two young candidates; Benjamin 
Prat followed with a few words of similar 
nature ; then the oath was administered ; 
then the two shook hands with the meiubers 
of the bar present, "received their congratu- 
lations, and invited them over to Stone's to 
drink some punch, where the most of us re- 
sorted and had a very cheerful chat." 

When, in 1806, counsellors were for the 



first time recognized, these rules were 
atlopted by the Supreme Judicial Court for 
admission to practice : 

" (1) No attorney shall do the business of a 
counsellor unless he shall have been made or ad- 
mitted as such by the Court. (2) All attorneys of 
the Court who have been admitted three years- 
before the sitting of the Court shall be, and are 
hereby made, counsellors, and are entitled to all the 
rights and privileges of such. (3) No attorney or 
counsellor shall hereafter be admitted without a 
previous examination. (4) The Court will from time- 
to time appoint from the barristers and counsellors 
a competent number of examiners, any two or more- 
of whom shall examine all candidates for admission 
to practice as counsellors or attorneys, at their 
expense; and whenever a candidate shall upon ex- 
amination be by them deemed duly qualified, they 
shall give a certificate in the form following. . . . 
(5) If after an examination the examiners shall refuse- 
such a certificate as aforesaid, they shall be required 
to give a certificate of their refusal, and the candi- 
date may appeal from the decision of the examiners 
to a justice of the Court, who will thereupon ex- 
amine him and either confirm or reverse the decision 
of the examiners; and in case of a reversal, the 
candidate may apply to the Court for admission. 
... (8) The following described persons shall be 
candidates for examination and admission to the bar 
as attorneys, that is to say — firstly, all who have 
been heretofore admitted as attorneys in any Court 
of Common Pleas in the Commonwealth, and who 
at the time they shall apply for examination shall 
be in regular practice therein; and second, all such 
as have, besides a good school education, devoted 
seven years at the least to literary acquisition, and 
three years thereof at the least in the office and 
under the instruction of a barrister or counsellor 
practicing in the Court." 

The next year, 1807, these rules were 
amended by the provision that "all gentle- 
men proposed by the bar for admission as 
attorneys of the Court before the establish- 
ment of the rules regulating the admission 
of attorneys published in March, 1806, may 
be admitted as attorneys of the Common- 
wealth in the same manner as they might 
have been before the establishment of said 
rules." In 1810 the Court repealed the 
rules of 1806 and substituted a new set. The 
principal features in this set related to can- 
didates having a liberal education and regu- 
lar degree at some college. Such were to 
have studied in the office and under the in- 
struction of some counsellor of the Com- 
monwealth for three years; after that, he 
was to have been admitted an attorney of 
the Court of Common Pleas for the county 
in which the counsellor with whom he had 



m} 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



studied dwelt, — having first been recom- 
mended by the bar of that county to the 
Court of Common Pleas as of "good moral 
character, and as suitably qualified for such 
admission" ; and after that, was to have 
practiced "with fidelity and ability" in some 
Court of Common Pleas within the State 
for two years; and then should be recom- 
mended by the bar for admission as an 
attorney of the Supreme Court. Also, pro- 
vision was made for the admission of col- 
lege-bred students studying in the offices and 
under the instruction of attorneys of the 
highest Court in other States. In 1836 pro- 
vision was made by law for examination for 
admission to the bar of "any citizen of the 
Commonwealth, or any alien who had ex- 
pressed his intention pursuant to law to be- 
come a citizen, of twenty-one years of age, 
of good moral character," and such citizen 
"might become an attorney after three years' 
study, and on the recommendation of an 
attorney." 

When the first Bar Association was 
formed is not known. It appears to have 
been dissolved some time between the dates 
of 1 76 1 and 1767. In January, 1770, the 
second Bar Association was organized, at a 
meeting of leading barristers and attorneys 
at the Bunch of Grapes tavern. The rules 
of this Association regulated admission 
to the bar. One of the rules was that no 
member should receive a student in his of- 
fice without the consent of the bar. It was 
further voted, "That in all cases when a 
gentleman shall be proposed as a student 
who has not had a college education he shall 
always undergo an examination by a com- 
mittee appointed by the bar previous to his 
admission as a student." And further, 
"That all students of colleges out of the 
State be not admitted to the bar until they 
shall have studied one year longer than 
those educated at Harvard University." 
While the entries in the "Record Book" of 
this Association, now preserved in the Mas- 
sachusetts Historical Society's library, end 
with the year 1805, it is Mr. Davis's opinion 
(Suffolk County History) that the organ- 
ization continued till 1836, when the amend- 



ments in the Revised Statutes seemed to 
render its existence no longer necessary. 
After its dissolution no other Bar Associa- 
tion was formed in Suffolk County till 1875, 
when the present "Bar Association of the 
City of Boston" was instituted. This was 
organized on the tenth of June, 1S76, with 
the following officers, all representative 
members of the local bar : Sidney Bartlett, 
president; Henry W. Paine, William Gas- 
ton, William G. Russell, vice-presidents; 
Richard Olney, treasurer; Albert E. Pills- 
bury, secretary; Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, 
Horace C. Hutchins, Gustavus A. Somerby, 
Robert M. Morse, Jr., Henry M. Rogers, 
executive committee; Richard H. Dana, Jr., 
Charles R. Train, Seth J. Thomas, George 
O. Shattuck, Walbridge A. Field, Robert D. 
Smith, Thomas L. Livermore, J. Lewis 
Stackpole, Samuel A. B. Abbott, Moses 
Williams, Jr., judicial committee. The ob- 
jects of the Association, as officially defined, 
are "to promote social intercourse among 
the members of the bar, to insure conform- 
ity to a high standard of professional duty, 
and to make the practice of law efficient in 
the administration of justice." In the pur- 
suit of these objects the Association regards 
it its duty upon occasion to procure the ex- 
pulsion from the bar of lawyers guilty of 
professional misconduct, and in all proper 
ways to sustain the pure and able adminis- 
tration of law. The presidents after Sidney 
Bartlett have been : Judge Benjamin F. 
Thomas, E. Rockwood Hoar, William Gas- 
ten, William G. Russell, Causten Browne, 
Judge John Lowell. 

Among the large names at the Boston, or 
Suffolk, bar at periods in the first half of 
the nineteenth century were: Francis Dana, 
the first Judge John Lowell, Harrison Gray 
Otis, Theophilus Parsons, Samuel Sewall, 
Benjamin Austin, Samuel Dexter, Christo- 
pher Gore, James Sullivan, Daniel Webster, 
Jeremiah Mason, the Curtises, — George 
Ticknor and Benjamin Robbins, — Lemuel 
Shaw, Peleg Sprague, Henry F. Durant, 
Rufus Choate. 

Webster's office was in a building on the 
lower corner of Court and Tremont Streets. 



THK BOOK OF BOSTOX 



3Qt 



He rtrst entered the law office of Christopher 
Gore, then in Scollay's Building. He had 
come to Boston a young man fresh from 
tlie country. Gore moved his admission to 
the bar in 1805, in the Court of Common 
Pleas, and, according to the old custom, 
made a brief speech in commendation of his 
pupil. "It is a well-knriwn traditinn," says 



pears to have been unwilling to repeat the 
words of Mr. Gore's address." I\Ir. Web- 
ster then returned to New Ham])shire, and 
soon became a leader of the bar there. But 
in a few years he was back in Boston, and 
became permanently a citizen of Boston 
in 1816. Although he practiced somewhat 
in the State, his chief business was in the 




ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SUFFOLK COUNTY COURT HOUSE, PEMBERTON SQUARE 

AT THE EXTREME LEFT AT THE END OF THE STREET APPEARS 

THE ELKS CLUB 



George Ticlvnor Curtis in the Life of Web- 
ster, "that on this occasion Mr. Gore pre- 
dicted the future eminence of his young 
friend. What he said has not been pre- 
served, but that he said what Mr. Welister 
never forgot, that it was distinctl)' a predic- 
tion, and that it e.xcited in him a resolve 
that it shiiuld nnt go unfulfilled, we have 
upun his own autliuritN', althnugh he ap- 



United States Supreme Court. Before that 
tribunal all his greatest efforts were made. 

Theophilus Parsons came to Boston from 
Newlniryport in 1806 with a high reputa- 
tion. John T. Morse (Memorial History 
of Boston ) describes him as a master of 
prize and admiraltv law. He never used a 
brief, says Morse, trusting with perfect con- 
fidence to a nienmrx' of extraiirdinar\- tc- 



392 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



nacity. Chief Justice Isaac Parker ( 1814- 
1830) thus pictured him in argument: "He 
put (ine foot on his chair, and, with an elljow 
en his knee, leaned over and l^egan to talk 
about the case as a man might talk to a 
neighbor at his fireside." He achieved bril- 
liant successes. He followed Francis Dana 
in the chief justiceship of the Supreme 
Court, upon Dana's retirement in 1806, and 
served from 1806 till his death in 1813. 

Jeremiah ]\Iason came to Boston from 
New Hampshire in 1832, then over sixty 
years of age, having reigned almost supreme 
at the New Hampshire bar. Long before 
his removal to Boston he had served with 
distinction, a Federalist, in the United 
States Senate. Here in Boston he shared 
with Webster the leadership of the bar. He 
retired from general practice in 1840, but 
•continued the business of a consulting law- 
yer in his office till his death in 1848. He 
was massive in mind and body. This story 
illustrative of his physical presence is told. 
Once when riding through the upper and 
then narrow part of Water Street in the 
chaise in which he always rode, and crouch- 
ing down as was his hal)it so that his real 
Tieight was not disclosed, he met a team 
•coming up. It was of course necessary that 
either Mr. Mason or the driver of the team 
should back out of the way. Mr. Mason 
ordered the driver to back in a somewhat 
peremptory manner, which the driver re- 
sented, returning the compliment bv telling 
the old man to back himself. After some 
words of a not very friendly character, Mr. 
Mason, getting a little angry, began to 
straighten up, much to the dismay of the 
driver, who at last exclaimed, "For God's 
sake, mister, don't uncoil any more, I'll get 
out of the way!" 

Of the brothers Curtis, Benjamin Rob- 
bins, the elder, born in Watertown, 1809, 
graduated from Harvard, 1829, and trained 
for his profession in the Harvard Law 
School antl in lawyers' offices, was admitted 
first to the Franklin County bar, and began 
practice in Connecticut Valley towns — 
Greenfield and Northfield. Returning to 
Boston in 1834, he was then admitted to the 



Suffolk bar, soon to be classed with its lead- 
ing practitioners. He became Judge Curtis 
in 185 1 with his appointment to the United 
States Supreme bench. He served on the 
bench till 1857, when he resigned. A 
decade later he was conspicuous as one of 
the counsel of Andrew Johnson in the im- 
peachment trial of 1868. He received the 
honorar)- degree of LL.D., from Harvard 
(T852) and from Brown ( 1857). His son, 
Benjamin Robliins, Jr., born in Boston in 
1855, dul}- graduated from Harvard, 1875, 
then from the Harvard Law School, and 
finishing ofif with study in a Boston lawyer's 
office — Albert ^Mason's, afterward Judge 
Mason, chief justice of the Superior Court, 
— and admitted to the bar first in Plymouth 
County, 1878, was a worthy successor of his 
father, though on a much lighter scale. He 
was a lecturer in the Boston University Law 
School for a few years from 1881 ; and in 
1886 he became Judge Curtis, of a lower 
court, the I\Iunicipal of Boston. He died 
prematurely in 1891, when he was preparing 
for larger service as a general practitioner. 
I knew him well and respected him. He 
was a sober-minded man, taking life seri- 
ously and in a most gentlemanly way. He 
was concerned in various wholesome local 
and political reforms. George Ticknor Cur- 
tis, born in W^atertown, 1812, Harvard 
graduate 1832, admitted to the Suffolk bar, 
1836, practiced many )'ears in Boston, and 
in a wider field than his brother, Benjamin 
Robbins. At length he moved to New York 
and there extended his reputation. He pub- 
lished numerous books, but is best known 
from his "Life of Daniel Webster." 

Lemuel Shaw, who became Chief Justice 
Shaw of the Sujjreme Judicial Court, and 
served with high distinction for thirty 
years — fmm 1830 to i860— native of 
Barnstable, born in 1781, graduating from 
Harvard 1800, after leaving college an 
usher in a Boston public school, and a 
"newspaper man," as assistant editor of 
the Boston Gazette, a student in a Boston 
law office and finishing his studies in 
New Hampshire, was first admitted to the 
l)ar in that State, in 1804. Later the same 



THK BOOK OI-' ROSTOX 



,^93 



_\car, IiMwcxcr, he returned to Massachusetts 
aiul was admitted to the l)ar of this State, 
at I*i\niouth. Soon estahhsliinj^ liiniself in 
Boston he I)ecaine c<ins])icuouslv ideutitied 
with the Suffolk bar. He wrote tlie act in- 
corporatius^ the City of Bc)ston, with the 
exception of two sections, the one with re- 
spect to theatres and pul)Hc exhiljitions, the 
other establishing tiie Police Court. He 
was appointed to the Supreme liench in 
August, 1830, and resigned in August, 




PEMBERTON SQUARE, 1S65 

i860, in his eightieth year. He died in 
Boston, March 31, 1861, at his home on 
Alt. \'ernon Street, Beacon Hill. He re- 
ceived the LL.D. degree from Harvard in 
183 1, and in 1850 from Brown. 

Peleg Sprague, born in Duxbury 1793, 
graduating from Harvard iSij, studying 
law in Litchfield, Connecticut, and after- 
ward in Worcester and Boston offices, was 
admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1815. 
He moved to Maine, then the District of 
Maine, a part of Massachusetts, and settling 
in .Vugusta, began j)ractice there. Shortlv 
removing to Hallowell he became identified 
with the afifairs of that town. After the 
State of ]\raine was organized in 1820, he 
became a member of its Legislature. Five 
years later he was cho.sen to Congress, and 
in 1829 was made senator. In 1835 he came 
back to Boston and was admitted to the 
Suffolk bar. .After six years of general 
practice he was apiminted judge of the 



United States District Court, tn the seat 
made vacant b\' the resignation of John 
Davis, will) had occupied it for forty years. 
judge Sprague liekl the place for nearly a 
(juarter of a century, when an affection of 
the e)es, from which he had long suft'ered, 
rendered his resignation necessary. He re- 
signed in 1865. Although partially blind, 
he continued in chamber jjractice for some 
>ears longer. He died at his home in 
Chestnut Street, Beacon Hill, in 1880, at 
the age of eighty-seven. 

LIenr\- Fowle Durant was among the 
eminent jur\- law\ers nf the Suffolk Ijar of 
his da_\-. His birth name was Henry Wells 
Smith, son of a law\-er, \Villiam Smith, 
and was ])i)rn in I laiiuN'er, Nev\' Hampshire, 
in i82_>. His father, hciwever, moved to 
Ldwell, ^L^ssachusetts, when Henry was an 
infant, and that cit\' was his home till after 
liis career as a lawyer had begun. He was 
graduated from Harvard in 1841, studied 
law with his father and with ijenjamin F. 
I'.utler, and was admitted to the Aliddiese.x 
bar in 1843. He removed to Boston in 1847, 
and his brilliant recortl was achieved at the 
Suffolk bar. His name was changed when 
he was practicing here, bv act of the Legis- 
lature in i85r. The foundation of a fortune 
was laid in his practice, and this fortune 
was increased through business association 
and ownership of an iron mine. In 1863 
upon the death of a beloved son, he aban- 
doned law and devoted himself to serv- 
ice in the Orthodox Church. In 1863 he 
emerged from retirement to tlefend the 
cause of Edward Everett against the City 
of Chariestown, which, in establishing the 
Mystic W^ater Works, had overflowed the 
most of Mr. Everett's country seat on 
the pond's brink in ^\'inchester ; and he dis- 
played in this case all his old arts. With his 
fortune he founded Welleslev College, first 
opened in 1873. He died in Wellesle\' in 
1881. 

Rufus Choate was the most ])ictures(|ue, 
fascinating, amazing figure at the Suffnlk 
bar during the }cars of his practice in Bos- 
ton, which were the latter years of his life. 
J le had established his reputation as a fore- 



394 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



most advocate in Essex County, his birth- 
place, where he began practice, first in Dan- 
vers, but soon after in Salem. It has been 
said that while practicing at the Essex bar 
no client of his was ever convicted in crim- 
inal proceedings. These clients were of all 
classes, and charged with every variety of 
crime. People began to say, says John T. 
Morse, that he was the scourge of society ; 
that behind his ;tgis crime could flourish 
uncontrolled. Mr. Morse recalls the amus- 
ing story first told, I think, in Judge 
Parker's "Reminiscences of Choate," as il- 
lustrative of the faith of criminals in him. 
He was cross-examining a government wit- 
ness, a seaman who was testifying against 
his comrades charged with stealing money. 
The sailor had said that Choate's client had 
instigated the theft. "What did he say?" 
asked Mr. Choate; "tell me how and what 
he spoke to you." "Oh," replied the sailor, 
"he told us there was a man in Boston 
named Choate who could get us off even 
if we were caught with the money in our 
boots." The courtroom echoed with the 
roar of laughter. ]\Ir. Choate showed no 
sign either of amusement or displeasure, 
but continued with even tranquillitv as if 
nothing peculiar had happened. He was 
called the magician of the bar. His elo- 
quent flights, his imagery, pathos and humor 
were marvellous. His demeanor and bear- 
ing in the courtroom Judge Parker thus 
pictures : 

" It was a model of gentlemanly deference. He 
took his seat in the most modest, unassuming way. 
Indeed, he never did any thing which had the 
appearance, to use the vulgar phrase, of ' making a 
spread.' If, as sometimes happened, the opposite 
counsel was a young man, the manner of the youth 
would indicate that he was the greater man of the 
two. Even when the evidence was in and Mr. 
Choate came into Court, on the morning of the 
argument, pressing his way through the thronged bar 
and the crowded aisles, he came with no bold 
warranty of supremacy and success in his manner. 
He would slide deferentially into his chair, sling off 
several of his innumerable coats, pile up his papers 
before him, rub his hands through his tangled hair, 
push his little table slightly away, rise and say 
something to the Judge which seemed the beginning 
of a low conversation, but which you afterward 
discovered was a ' May it please your Honor,' then 
turn to the jury with a trite remark or two — the 
intent crowd would settle a little — and then in a 
few sentences more, ere anybody was aware of it, he 



would be sailing up into the heaven of pathetic 
adjuration, and bearing you along with him, like a 
stately balloon swinging steadily upwards, far away 
in the air." 

The manner of his appeal to the jury, 
which began long before his final argument, 
indeed when he first took his seat before 
them and looked into their eyes, Judge 
Parker vividl}- describes : 

" He generally contrived to get his position as near 
to them as was convenient, if possible having his 
table close to the bar, in front of their seats, and 
separated from them only by a narrow space for 
passage. Then he looked over them and began to 
study them. Long before the evidence was in, either 
by observation or enquiry, he had learned the quality 
of every one of them. ... I saw him once in an 
argument walk straight up to a juryman and say, 
' Sir, I address myself to you. I will convince you 
now, if you will give me your attention '; and then 
he proceeded to launch upon him a fiery storm of 
logical thunderbolts to conquer or paralyze what 
he saw was his deadly hostility." 

His sudden bursts of humor and wit 
helped him in everv stage of the cause, says 
Judge Parker. Often they would "kindle 
up such a sympathetic conflagration of glee 
all over the courtroom that the dry case 
seemed to take a new start from that mo- 
ment, and the lawyers looked up as if they 
had taken a sudden draft of fresh air." 
His htunor was novel in its odd, eccentric 
association of very opposite ideas. The 
following anecdotes, two of many examples 
of his scintillating wit, perhaps best illus- 
trate this distinctive qualit\-. On one occa- 
sion, in seeking to keep out the evidence 
of a certain witness, he exclaimed, "This wit- 
ness's statement is no more like the truth 
than a pebble is like a star!" The queer- 
ness of the comparison provoked a smile, 
but on he went, — "or a witch's broomstick 
like a banner stick." This climax produced 
great shouting. The other story : In a rail- 
road case, where a carriage had been run 
over at a crossing, he was showing that the 
company could not have had any look- 
out. "They say," he cried, "the engine 
driver was the lookout. The engine driver 
the lookout ! Why, what was he doing at 
this mument of transcendent interest? [The 
moment of passing the crossroad.] What 
was the lookout doing? Oiling his ptmips, 
they say — oiling his pumps, gentlemen of 



Till-: IU)()K Ol-' BOSTON 



,^J5 



tlu' jurx! a tliiiii; lie had im nmrc- Imsiness 
to 1)0 diiing' than lie hail la br meriting 
an I'/'/V /'()(-;/( of Icccnty-foiir liins:" The 
courtroom roared. The effect was decisive; 
the case was his. 

Choate was highly cultivated in literature 
as in law. He was one of the most learned 
men at the Suffolk bar. As John T. Morse 
says, he was a scholar steeped in the litera- 
ture of ancient and modern da\s. He was 



mouth at sixteen. After his ^raduatiim in 
1819 he was a tutor in the college for a 
year. Then he came down to Cambridge 
and attended lectures at the Law School for 



a short time. 



iS_>i he went to \\'a>hing- 



ton and .studied in the office of William 
Wirt, then United States attorney-general. 
Returning to Massachusetts the next year, 
he finished his legal studies in Ipswich and 
Salem; and in iS_'3 he was admitted to the 




1.11.1 Ml if 



VIEW OF BOSTON FROM CUSTOM HOUSE TOWER, SHOWING BACK BAY. CHARLES RIVER WITH ITS BRIDGES, 

AND THE GOLDEN DOME OF THE CAPITOL 



a precocious child. When he was a little 
fellow of about six it has been said that he 
could repeat fmni memory a large jiart of 
"Pilgrim's Progress." Ijefore he was ten, 
we are told, he had exhausted the resources 
of the library in his native town — the little 
town of Essex, where he was born in 1799. 
At ten he began the study of Latin with the 
local minister. He was fitted for college 
at Hampton .\cadeni_\-. and entered Dart- 



Essex bar. He died at Halifax, July thir- 
teenth, 1859, when on his return voyage 
from luirope. whither he had gone in the 
hope of recovering his health, which had lie- 
come shattereil. Mr. Choate received the 
LL.D. from \-a\l- in 1844. from Dartmouth 
and Harvard in 1845, and from Amherst 
in 1848. The bronze portrait-statue of 
Choate in the great hall of the Court House, 
bv D. C. Ereiich, is an excellent likeness. 



396 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



In Chapter Two 1 named a nuniljer of the 
leading lawyers of the Boston of tifty years 
asfo. Several of these were further to 
distinguish the SulTolk l)ar in the second 
half of the nineteenth century. To this list 
should be added such names as Horace 
Gray, Elias Merwin, Charles Levi Wood- 
bury, the brothers Crocker — Uriel and 
George G. — Frederick O. Prince, John E. 
Hudson, Robert R. Bishop. Judge Gray 
made his reputation first as the re])orter of 
the decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court, 
to which position he was appointed in 1854; 
his sixteen volumes of Reports cover the 
period from 1854 to i860. He first l)ecame 
a judge with his appointment in 1864, — a 
justice of the Supreme Court whose reports 
he had taken; he became chief justice in 
1873. His appointment as an associate jus- 
tice of the United States Supreme Court 
came ten years later, or in 1882. Judge 
Gray's house here in Boston was in that 
favored quarter of Mt. Vernon Street, on 
the brow of Beacon Hill, where the row of 
broad-breasted houses, sumptunus in pro- 
portions, is set back from and above the 
public sidewalk with aristocratic reserve. 
Elias Merwin, associated with Benjamin 
R. Curtis till the latter's apointment to the 
United States Supreme bench, became one 
of the foremost of patent lawyers. He was 
sometime professor of equity in the Boston 
University Law School. Hudson and 
Bishop were of the group of students, all of 
whom in succession were to come to rank 
with the leaders at the bar, who finished off 
their legal studies in the office of the emi- 
nent Peleg W. Chandler, t'/^.. Oliver Wen- 
dell Holmes, Jr., to become a justice of the 
United States Supreme Court; James B. 
Thayer, later of the Chandler firm — Chand- 
ler, Shattuck and Thayer — and finally be- 
coming the head of the Harvard Law 
School; Hudson, Bishop, and Benjamin 
Kimball. Hudson became a member of the 
Chandler firm in the latter 'seventies, when 
it was changed to Chandler, Ware ( Darwin 
E. Ware of pleasant memory), and Hudson. 
He it was who drafted the charter of the 
American Bell Telephone Company; be- 



came the company's first general counsel; 
then was made general manager of the com- 
pany, and abandoned law practice; in 1887 
was chosen vice-president of the company, 
and in 1889 its jiresident. ]\Ir. Bishop be- 
came a judge, appointed to the Superior 
Court in 1888. After the Civil \\'ar. Gen. 
Benjamin F. Ikitler moved his law offices 
from Lowell to Boston and liecame a prac- 
titioner at the Suffolk bar with all the en- 
ergv, audacit}-, and conspicuousness that 
characterized his military and political 
career. His offices were also political 
headquarters during his various runs for 
jiublic place ; here were arranged those 
plans which ultimately brought him to the 
height of his ambition — the governorship 
of the State, overcoming the bitter and re- 
lentless opposition of the hitherto most 
influential leaders of the Republican and 
Democratic parties, with each of which he 
associated himself, one after the other, to 
attain his end. 

The lawyers' offices fifty years ago were 
no such elegant quarters as those of even 
the average lawyer of today. The more 
eminent the lawyer, the more modest his 
office. For many years the lawyers' of- 
fices clustered about the near neighborhood 
of the Courthouse, then where the City 
Hall Anne.x now is. Court Street from 
Scollay Square to Washington Street might 
well have been called Lawyers' Row. 
\Vhen Pemberton Square was changing 
from a select residential cjuarter to a place 
of liusiness offices, lawyers' offices predom- 
inated here. 

As the half century advanced, the com- 
forts of the lawyers' offices increased; and 
the Suffolk Bar grew to large and influen- 
tial proportions. It is claimed that at pres- 
ent there are over three thousand members 
in good standing. Naturally, leaders appear 
in the present generation as in those of the 
past. There is much to fascinate the bright- 
est minds through an honored career at the 
Bar, and many of our best youths enter the 
profession. There is a splendid representa- 
tion of the various branches on the follow- 
ing pages. 



TTIE RC^OK OF BOSTON 



307 



HON. HENRY K. 15RALEV 
Henrv Kint; I'.raley was horn in Roches- 
ter, Mass., March 17, 1850, son of Samnel 
Tripp and Mary A. ( King) Braley. So far 




HON. HEXKV K. BRALtV 



as can Ije ascertained he is a descendant of 
John Braley, a disciple of George Fox, who 
settled in Portsmouth, R. I., in 1693. On 
his mother's side he numbers among his an- 
cestors the Douglasses and Kings of Pl\ni- 
outh Count}-. He was educated in the com- 
mon schools, at Rochester Academ\- and, 
after graduating from Pierce Academy, 
Middleboro, Massachusetts, he taught 
school in Bridgewater, during which time 
he studied law and was admitted to the Bar 
at Plymouth, October 7, 1873. He entered 
u])<in the practice of his profession at Fall 



River, December, 18 



/,-)• 



and m 



1891 



was 



appointed Justice of the Su])erior Court nf 
^Massachusetts by Govcrncir Russell, and in 
1902 Justice of the Sujireme Judici;d iDurl 
of Massachusetts by Covernnr Crane. He 
was City Solicitor of b'all River in 1876 
and Mayor in 1882 and 1883. Judge Braley 
is a Past Grand Master nf the 1. O. O. F., a 
Freemason and a member of Godfrey de 



Bouillon C(imman(kT\, and the Sons of the 
American Revolutii n. In i<;()2 Dartmouth 
College conferred the hcin(;rary degree of 
A.^I. upon him. In ])o!itics his affiliations 
have alwavs been with the Democratic 
]iart\-. He is a member of the City and 
Union Cluljs of Bostnn, the Quequechan 
Club of Fall River and the Home Club of 
lulgartown. On April 29, 1875, he was 
married to Caroline W. Leach of Bridge- 
water. Two children were born to them, 
one of whom, Abner L. Braley, a justice of 
the District Court of Dukes County, now 
survives. 

H( )X. \\'ll.l-ki:i) l'.< )LSTER 

Hun. Wilfretl Holster, Chief Justice of 
the Boston Municipal Court, was born in 
Ro.xburv, September 13, 1866, the son of 
IbjU. Solomon .\. P>olster, who was for 
several years Justice of the Roxbury Munic- 
ipal Court. Judge Wilfred Bolster was 
educated at the Roxlmry Latin School, Har- 




HON. UIl.FKKD BOLSTKK 



yard College and H.arvard L;iw .School, 
olitaim'ng the degrees of A.L., .\.M., and 
LL.l!., with high honors. He began prac- 



398 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



tice in 1891 and was appointed to his present 
position in 1906. Judge Bolster is one of 
the Board of Governors of the Boston City 
Clul), a member of the American Institute 
cf Criminal Law and Criminology, the 
Economic Club and the Abstract Club. He 
was a member of the Boston School Board 
for three years, and in 191 1 was Chairman 
of the Commission on Sufifolk Inferior 
Courts. 



The great law schools of Boston have 
made the Bar of that city superior in its 
requirements for leadership to that of the 

tisual American metropolitan centers. 

HON. HENRY W. BRAGG 

Hon. Henry \\'. Bragg, who has been 
honored with many positions of trust dur- 
ing his long professional career, was born 
in Holliston, Mass., December 11, 1841, 
the son of Willard and Mary Matilda 
(Claflin) Bragg. He was educated at the 
]\Iilford and Pittsfield high schools, finish- 
ing with collegiate courses at New York 
University and Tufts College. He grad- 
uated from the latter institution in 1861 
and studied law in Natick, in the offices of 
Hon. John W. Bacon and Hon. George L. 
Sawin. He was admitted to the Bar in Oc- 
tober, 1864, in the Middlesex County Su- 
perior Court, and began practice in Charles- 
town in January, 1865, opening an office 
in Boston in 1868. He was City Solicitor 
of Charlestown from 1867 until 1870 and 
Special Justice of the Charlestown Munic- 
ipal Court from 1870 until 1886. He was 
Master in Chancery in Middlesex County 
from 1869 until 1874 and has filled the same 
office in Suffolk County since 1874. He 
was Justice of the Charlestown Municipal 
Court from 1886 until January, 19 14, when 
he resigned. Judge Bragg has been a 
member of the Massachusetts State Board 
of Bar Examiners since 1903 and solicitor 
of Warren Institution of Savings of 
Charlestown since 1867. He is a member 
of the Masonic Fraternity, Past Master of 
Faith Lodge, Charlestown, a director of 
the American Humane Societ\- and holds 



meml_)ership in the L'niversity, Boston Art, 
Curtis, Taylor, Oakley Country and Ab- 
stract Clubs, the 99th Artillery of Charles- 
town, the Zeta Psi Fraternity, the Order of 
the Coffee Pot, and is an honorary member 
of the Boston Bar Association. Judge 
Bragg was married in Milford, January 11, 
1866, to Ellen Frances Haven. 

HON. ROBERT ORR HARRIS 

Hon. Robert O. Harris was born in Bos- 
ton May 8, 1854. He is descended from 
Arthur Harris, who settled in Roxbury in 
1640, and Governor Bradford, John Alden, 
Richard Warren, Francis Cook, John Wins- 
low and others of the Pilgrims who came 
over in the "Mayflower." After a thorough 
preparation he entered Harvard and gradu- 
ated in 1877, afterwards studying law at the 
Boston L^niversitv Law School and in his 




HON. ROBERT O. HARRIS 

father's office. He was District Attorney 
of the southeastern district from 1893 until 
1902, a judge of the Superior Court until 
March i, 1911, a memlier of the Massachu- 
setts Legislature in 1899 and the National 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



3Q9 



House of Representatives from the Four- 
teentli District in the 62nd Congress. Mr. 
Harris is a member of the University, Har- 
vard and Boston Cit_\- Chihs and of the I'i 
Eta Fraternity. 

HON. charlp:s :\i. hruce 

Hnn. ("haries M. ilruce, justice <>i tlie 
First District Court of Eastern Middlesex, 
was born in Aslitabula, Ohio, November 2>S, 

1863. He was edu- 
cated in the gram- 
mar schools of 
Ashtabula and Bos- 
ton, the Roxbury 
Latin School and 
the ])Oston Univer- 
sity Law School. 
J 'revious to enter- 
ing the Law School 
he was with the 
Boston, Lowell & 
Concord R. R., and 
after admission to 
the I'ar, took up the 
active practice of 
his profession, his 
offices now being located at 84 State Street. 
Judge Bruce was appointed Special Justice 
of the First District Court of Eastern Mid- 
dlesex by (iovernor Greenhalge in 1893, and 
was appointed Justice of that Court by Gov- 
ernor Bates in 1903. He is a member of 
the Pjoston Art Clul), Boston City Clul). Bos- 
ton Yacht Club, Middlesex Clul), Lincoln 
Club anil of the Masonic F'raternity, Blue 
Lodge, Chapter, Council and Cuimmandery. 



HON. THOM.VS P. RlLl'.Y 

Hon. Thomas P. Riley, Special Justice 
of the Maiden District Court, was born in 
Medford, Mass., July, 1876. He was edu- 
cated at Seton Hall College and graduated 
from the Boston L^niversity Law School in 
1899, obtaining the .\.]',.. A.M., and LL.i*.. 
degrees. He began ])raclice in 1900 and is 
now in general practice, with offices in the 
Treniont P.uilding, Boston, and Court Build- 




HOX. CHARLES M. BRUCE 



ing, Maiden. He was re])resentative in the 
(ieneral Court in 1908-9 and 10, and was ap- 
])ointed to the Alalden judgeship in i(>ii. He 
was chairman of the 
Democratic State 
Committee in 19 12- 
13, and First As- 
sistant .\ 1 1 o r n e \- 
General of the Stat( 
in 1914. He is no\< 
a memljer of tlu 
Massachusetts Gas 
and Electric Light 
Commissioners. He 
is a luember of the 
Middlesex and 
Massachusetts Bar 
Associations, Bos- 
ton City, Press and 
Clover Clubs, Elks, 




Eagles, Knights of Columbus an( 
(^rder of Hibernians. 



HON. THOMAS P. RILEY 

Ancient 



HON. HARRY C. FAP.YAN 

Hon. Harry C. Fabyan, Special Justice 
of the Municipal Court of the City of Bos- 
ton, District of Brighton, was born in Port- 
land, Me., June 15, 
1870. He graduated 
from Bowdoin Col- 
lege in 1893 and 
from the Boston 
University L a w j 
School in 1896. He 
was admitted to the | 
Suffolk County Bar 
the saiue year and 
has practiced since 
that time in Boston 
with offices at 31 
Milk Street. In ad- 
dition to his legal 
and judicial duties. 
Judge Fabyan is 
president of the Brighton F~ive Cents Sav- 
ings Bank. He is a member of the Boston 
P.ar Association, the Appalachian Mountain 
Club, and the Commonwealth Country Club. 
He is married and resides in Briijhton. 




HON. 1L\RRY C. FABYAX 



400 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



HON. JOSIAH S. DEAN 

Hon. Josiah S. Dean was born in South 
Boston, May n, i860, the son of the late 
Hon. Benjamin Dean, a former member of 
Congress. He was educatetl in the Boston 
public schools, and after a year at the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology studied law 
in the offices of his father and attended the 
Boston University and Harvard Law 
Schools, being admitted to the Bar in 1885. 

He served as a memljer of the Boston 
Common Council in 1891 and 1892, was 
appointed Special Justice of the South Bos- 
ton Municipal Court in 1893, was a member 
of the Board of Aldermen in 1897, and was 
appointed License Commissioner for the 
City of Boston in July, 19 12. 




HON. JOSIAH S. DEA N 

He is a member of the Boston Art Club, 
the Boston Bicycle Club, Boston City Club, 
the American, Massachusetts and Boston 
Bar Associations, and the Masonic Fra- 
ternity. 

He married, in 1888, May L. Smith, and 
and has four sons. 




HON. JAMES H. FLINT 

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT 

OF EASTERN NORFOLK 



HON. WILLIS W. STOVER 
Hon. Willis W. Stover, special Justice cf 
the Municipal Court, Charlestown District, 
was born March 19, 1870, in Charlestown, 
Mass. He took a special course at Har- 
vard in 1889-90 and graduated LL.B. from 
the Boston University Law School in 1896. 
He was admitted to the Suffolk Bar the 
same year and in 1899 organized the law 
firm of Stover & Sweetser, with offices in 
the Kimball Building. Judge Stover is a 
commissioner of sinking funds in Everett, 
where he resides ; is a trustee of the Charles- 
town Five Cents Savings Bank ; is Colonel 
of the Fifth Regiment of Infantry, M. V. 
M., and has served for three years as com- 
mandant of the Training School of the Na- 
tional Guard of Massachusetts. He served in 
the Spanish-.Vmerican \\'ar as captain of 
Co. A, Fifth Massachusetts Infantry, LT. S. 
v., and is a member of the United Spanish 
War \'eterans, of which he was commander- 
in-chief in 1900-01. He was commander 
of the Massachusetts Commandery of the 
Naval and Military Order of the Spanish- 
American War in 1913-14 antl is a memljer 



THK lU)OK OI- P.OSTOX 



401 



of the Massachusetts Society, Sons of the 
Revolution, the Masonic Fraternity and the 
Army and Navy Club of Washington, D. C. 
]ie was married October y, 1901, to AHce 
lleswick. of Maiden, Mass. 

HOX. JOSEPH A. SHKF.HAX 

Hon. Joseph A. Sheehan, \\li() has been 
a Special Justice of the Municipal Court of 
the City of ]!ostcn since 1913, was born in 

this city, X'ovember 
16, 1873. His pre- 
]iaratory education 
was received at the 
English H i g h 
School, and his le- 
gal training was at 
the Boston Univer- 
sity school, from 
which he received 
the LL.l). degree in 
1897, and the de- 
gree of master of 
laws (LL.M.) in 
19 16. He was ad- 
mitted to practice 
in 1897. and has 
since practiced in Boston with offices at 
53 State Street. He was a member of 
the School Committee of Boston in 1905- 
06. Judge Sheehan is a director of the 
Massachusetts Societv for Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals, member of the Ameri- 
can and Massachusetts Bar Associations, the 
Bar Association of the City of Boston, the 
Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters, 
Boston Catholic Union and the .*>t. A'incent 
de Paul Society. He was married in 1914 
to Stella Gertrude Lomljard of Boston. 

JOSEPH J. FEELEY 

Joseph J. Feeley, attorney, was born in 
Boston, May 7, 1862, and after preparing 
at the Boston Latin Scliool, graduated 
LL.B. from the lioston University Law 
School in 1884. He took special courses in 
scientific subjects at the Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Technology, and after admission 
to the liar in 1884, ])racticed in Boston. He 
has served as counsel for \arious towns in 




HON. JOSEPH A. SHEEHAN 



Norfolk Count}- and for several manufactur- 
ing concerns. He was trial justice of Nor- 
folk County from 1886 until 1890; assistant 
district attorney of Norfolk and Plymouth 
counties from i8()o until i8()4, and a mem- 
ber of the Ancient 
and Honorable Ar- 
tillery Co. since 
1896. He is a mem- 
ber of the Ameri- 
can, Massachusetts, 
Norfolk and Boston 
Bar Associations, 
ex-president of the 
Alumni Association 
of the Boston L^ni- 
versity Law Scln^ol 
and the ^Masonic 
l-'raternity. holding 
membership in tl.e 
Blue Lixlge, Chap- 
t e r Commandery 
and also the Shrine. 
Street. 




JOSEPH J. FEELEY 

His office is at 95 Milk 



HOX. ED\\'ARD L. McALANUS 
Hon. bMward L. McAlanus, Special Jus- 
tice of the First District of South ]\liddle- 
sex, was born in Xatick, Mass., Decemlier 
22, 1866, and re- 
ceived his legal 
training at the Bos- 
ton University Law 
School, graduating 
LL.B. in' 1 891. He 
was admitted to 
the Suffolk Counts- 
Bar the same year 
and from 1893 to 
1902 was attorney 
for the Claims De- 
partment of the 
West End Street 
Railway. He was 
in ])ri\-;ite practice, 
with offices in Bar- 
risters Hall when Governor Foss appointed 
him to his present jxisition in uju. He 
was a member of the M.'issachusetts Legis- 
l.-iture in 1904-5 and 6. Judge McManus is 
<a member of several fraternal organizations. 




HON. EDWARD L. Mt.MANCS 



402 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



SAMUEL LAWRENCE BAILEN 

Samuel L. Bailen, an attorney, engaged 
in general practice of the law with Judge 
Frank Leveroni, in the Tremont Building. 




SAMUEL L. BAILEN 

at Boston, of whom Dr. Charles Fleischer, 
the eminent Boston Divine, said : "He serves 
well as an illustration of what the poet said, 

' He who saddles opportunity 
Is God's elect'; 

Mr. Bailen gallops gaily and with steady 
gain towards that fleeting goal called, 'Suc- 
cess,' because of his ability to effectively use 
'Opportunitx'.' . . . Young Bailen hurdled 
obstacle after obstacle in the race for Place 
and Achievement. He worked his way 
through the various schools, until he was 
finally graduated with 'cum laude' honors. 
. . . Bailen is a born lawyer, gifted with 
keen intelligence, to which he has joined an 
almost religious devotion to Law as being 
our most potent social instrument of Jus- 
tice, a person to whom 'nothing human is 
foreign.' " 

Samuel L. Bailen is a member of various 
clubs : the Boston Press Club, the City Club, 
a contributor to many charitable institutions, 



such as the Bostcjn Dispensary and the ^lu- 
seum of Fine Arts, and a devoted "Red 
Man." 

HON. FRANK LEVERONI 

Frank Leveroni, of the legal firm of 
Bailen & Leveroni, was born in Genoa, 
Italy, September lo, 1879. He was edu- 
cated in the Boston public schools and the 
Harvard and Boston University Law 
Schools, obtaining the LL.B. from the 
latter. He was admitted to practice in 

1903, and to the United States Court in 

1904. He was appointed legal adviser to 
the Italian Consulate in 1905, and made 
Special Justice of the Boston Juvenile Court 
one year later. He is also Public Adminis- 
trator of Suffolk County, is a director of 
the Federal Trust Company, trustee of the 
Home Savings Bank and a member and 
officer of many religious and charitable or- 
ganizations. He is a member of the Bos- 




HO.N. IR.V.NK LL\LKONI 



ton City Club, the Catholic Union, Harvard 
Club and Knights of Columbus. He was 
created a Knight of the Crown of Italy by 
King Emmanuel in 1908. 



THE BOOK OI' BOSTON 



403 



IIOX. ORESTES T. DOE 

11(111. Orestes T. Doe, Justice o( the I3is- 
trict Court of Western Norfolk, was horn 
in Parsonsfield, Maine, March 3, 1864. 

.His i)reliniinary 
echicatinii was re- 
[ceived at the I'ar- 
isnntielcl Seminary, 
from whence he en- 
Iten-d tlie Boston 
L'niversity Law 
ISchdol. t^Taikiatiui;- 
I 111 1891 with the 
EL.l). deg;ree. After 
aihnissicin ti> the 
Jlar he het^an prac- 
tice in FrankHn, 
Mas s., associated 
I w i t h George W. 
Wiggins, a n d in 
1898, seven years 
later, lie was appointed to the Justiceship 
which he still holds. He came to Boston in 
i<>oo. Jutlge Doe is a Repuhlican in politics 
and is active in the counsels of his party. He 
is a trustee and memher of the Investment 
Committee of the Benjamin Franklin Sav- 
ings Bank at I'Tanklin. His offices are at 
209 Washingtiin Street, Boston, and he re- 
sides in Eranklin, Mass. 




HON. ORESTES T. DOE 



HON. 
Hon. E. 




E. MARK SULLU'AN 

Mark Sullivan, formerly as- 
sociate justice of 
the Third District 
C(]urt of l^ssex, 
was born in Ips- 
wich. ]\[ass., Octo- 
ber 12, 1878. He 
was educated in the 
ublic schools tjf 
jiswich and grad- 
uated from the 
Planning High 
School there in 
1896. He after- 
wards attended 
Bfiston College and, 
ol)taining the A.B. 



HON. E. MARK SULLIVAN 



degree 



m 



1900, 



studied law at the Harvard Law School for 
two years. He was admitted to the Bar in 
1903 anil began practicing in Beverlv, Mass. 
Jn June, 1907, he was appointed Assistant 
United States District Attorney, but re- 
signed his position (Jct<iber 31, 1913, to 
resume private practice. Mr. Sullivan is 
a member of the Knights of Columbus, the 
Elks, the Ninth Regiment Club and the 
Clover Club of Boston. Llis offices are at 
53 State Street. 

HON. JOSEPH DANIEL FALLON 

Hon. Joseph D. Fallon, Justice of the 
South Boston Municipal Court, was born 
in Donir\-, Ireland, Decenil)er 25, 1837. He 
came to America 
m 1 85 1 and gradu- 
ated from the Col- 
lege of the Holy 
Cross, Worcester, 
in 1858, and is now 
the oldest living 
graduate of the 
college. He studied 
law in the office of 
Hon. Jonathan 
Coggswell Perkins 
of Salem and was 
admitted to the Bar 
in 1865. He began 
practice in Boston 
in the same year, ""''• -'"'"" "• ■'■"''■°'^' 
and was apiiointed S])ecial Justice in 1874, 
ci ntinuing in this position until 1893, and 
was Justice of the South Bo.ston Municipal 
Court from 1903 until 19 14, when with the 
consent of the Governor and Council he re- 
tired on three-quarters salar\-. Judge Fal- 
lon was a member of the Boston School 
Board from 1N64 until 1890 and has been 
an examiner for the Massachusetts Civil 
Service Commission at Boston. He is presi- 
dent of the Union Savings Bank, e.x-presi- 
dent of the Boston Catholic Union and the 
Charitable Irish Society of Boston, and a 
member of the Massachusetts Bar Associa- 
tion and the Bar Association of the City of 
Boston. His offices are at 43 Trcmont 
Street. 




404 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



HON. MICHAEL H. SULLIVAN 

Hon. Michael H. Sullivan, special jus- 
tice of the Dorchester }ilunicipal Court, was 
born in Granville, Mass., September 15, 

1874, and was edu- 
•cated at the High 
and State Normal 
School in ^^'estfield, 
Mass. He obtained 
the LL.B. degree 
from the Boston 
University L a w 
School in 1900 and 
L.M. degree in 
igi I, and after 
practicing nine 
years was appoin- 
ted to his present 
position by Gover- 
nor Draper. Judge 
Sullivan is a Dem- 
ocrat in politics, and is a member of the 
Knights of Columbus, Boston Chamber of 
Commerce, Charitable Irish Society and the 
First Corps Cadets \'eteran Association. 
He served nine years in the First Corps 
Cadets. M. V. M. His offices are at 34 
School Street and his home is in Dorches- 
ter. He is married and has five children. 




HON. .MICHAEL H. SILLIVAX 



HON. FREEMAN HUNT 

Freeman Hunt, lawyer, was born in 
Brooklyn. N. Y., September 4, 1855, the 
son of Freeman and Elizabeth (Parmenter) 
Hunt. The family 
dates its American 
ancestry from 
Enoch Hunt, whn 
settled in Wey- 
mouth. ]\Iass., in 
1652. Mr. Hunt 
received the A.]'), 
degree from Har- 
vard in 1877 and 
the LL.B. from 
Harvard University 
Law School in 
1 88 1. He has prac- 
ticed in Boston 
since 1882 and was 
a member of the 
Massachusetts State Senate in 1890. He 
also served as a member of the School Com- 
mittee and of the City Council of Cam- 
bridge, where he makes his home. He is 
a Democrat in politics and a member of the 
Middlesex Bar Association and the Masonic 
Fraternity. His offices are at 6 Beacon 
Street. 




HON. F.^EEMAN HUNT 




COMMONWEALTH AVENUE, BOSTON. ONE OF THE \VORLd"s MOST NOTED THOROUGHFARES 



thp: book of i^os'iox 



4(15 



HON. sa.mli:l lelaxd powers 



'It 




■^^^ W 1 


f*^7 ■ 


1^ 


* 



HON. .SA.MLEL L. POWERS 



H(jnorable Samuel L. Pmvers, lawyer 
and ex-Congressman, was born at Cornish, 
New Hampshire. Octol)er 26, 1848; grad- 
uated from Dartmoutli College in 1874; 
studied law at the University of the Cit\- 
of New York; was admitted to the bar in 
Worcester County in 1875; has practiced 
in Boston since that date and is senior mem- 
ber lit the firm of Powers & Hall. He was 



a member of the 57th and 38th Congresses; 
was for man\- \ears a trustee of Dart- 
mouth College: is jsresident of the Boston 
Art Club, a luember of the University, Ex- 
ch;inge, Newton, Atlantic Conference, and 
various other Boston clubs. He was for 
ten years connected with the Massachusetts 
Militia, Boston. ]lis offices are at loi 
Milk Street, lin.-^ton. 



406 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



HON. SAMUEL J. ELDER 

Samuel J. Elder, lawyer and publicist, 
was born at Hope, R. L, January 4, 1850. 
and was educated in the pulilic schools of 




HON. SAMUEL J. ELDER 

Lawrence and Yale College. He studied law 
with John H. Hardy, afterwards Justice of 
the Municipal Court, and was admitted to 
the Bar in 1875. 

Mr. Elder is now senior member of the 
legal firm of Elder, Whitman & Barnum, 
and has made a specialty of copyright 
law, acting as counsel for the International 
Copyright League before the U. S. Senate 
in 1891. 

He was a member of the lower house of 
the Legislature in 1885, declining reelection, 
and also declining a position on the Supericr 
Court bench. 

He is president of the Boston Bar Asso- 
ciation, a member of the Yale Alumni, and 
the Union, L^niversity, Papyrus, Curtis, 
Middlesex and Taylor Clubs of Boston and 
the Calumet Club of \\'inchester, Mass. 



EREDERICK P. FISH 
Frederick Perry Fish, who is one of the 
leading corporation lawyers in New Eng- 
land, and will I is interested in some of the 
city's best known financial institutions, was 
born at Taunton, Mass., January 13, 1855^ 
the son of Frederick L. and Mary (Jarvis) 
Fish. The degree of A.B. was conferred 
upon him by Harvard University in 1875, 
after which he entered the law school of 
that institution. Upon being admitted to the 
Bar, he practiced law in New York and 
Boston until Jul\- i, 1901, when he was 
chosen president of the American Bell Tele- 
phone Co., and the American Telephone and 
Telegraph Co., directing the affairs of those 
important corporations until 1907, when he 
resumed the practice of his profession with 
the legal firm of Fish, Richardson, Herrick 
& Neave, with chambers at 84 State Street. 
Mr. Fish is a director of the New England 



Trust Co 
has been 



and the Old Colony Trust Co. He 
Imniiretl with many positions of 
trust and imp()rtance. He is a member of 
the Board of Overseers of Harvard Univer- 
sitv, member of the corporaticjn and execu- 
tive committee of the Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technolog)-, chairman of the Massa- 
chusetts State Board of Education, associate 
and member of the Council of Radcliffe Col- 
lege, vice-president of the Boston Nursery 
for Blind Babies, and trustee of the Bosti n 
Dwelling House Co. Mr. Fish is ex-presi- 
dent of the Union, City and Commercial 
Clubs, and holds membership in the St. Bj- 
tolph, University and Exchange Clubs ( f 
Boston, and the University, National, Arts, 
Railroad, Bankers and Grolier Clubs of New 
York City. He was married April 7, i88o, 
to Clara P. Livermore. 



The merited legal fame of the Bar of 
Boston has well l)een sustained by the in- 
tegrity and ability of its practitioners. 



Washington Street, first called Broadway, 
then Broad Street, and often simply the 
Way, has always been one of the main 
thoroughfares of Boston, while the city's 
residential sections equal any in America, 
and the handsome homes on Commonwealth 
Avenue, Beacon and Marlborough Streets 
compare with those in any of the exclusive 
localities of other cities where wealth and 
culture congregate. 



THK HOOK OF BOSTON" 



40/ 



HON. JAMES F. JACKSON 
James Frederick Jackson, for a third oi 
a century one of the leading nienil)ers of the 
legal profession, ex-mayor of Fall River, 




HON. JAMES K. JACKSON" 

and former chairman of the State Railroad 
Commission, was born at Taunton, Mass., 
November 13, 185 1, the son of Elisha T. 
and Caroline Keith ( Forbes ) Jackson. The 
father was the head of the Taunton-Fall 
River Jackson family, and was long a prom- 
inent citizen and successful Inisiness man of 
Taunton. The Taunton Jackson was a 
branch of the earlier Plymouth County Jack- 
sons, Middlebdro lieing the home of the im- 
mediate forbears of the family. James Jack- 
son of Middleboro, in which town and at 
Plymouth the surname abounded from the 
very beginning of the settlement, was a lead- 
ing cotton manufacturer, a man held in high 
esteem ior his l)usiness sagacitx' and worth 
as a man and citizen, l)ut who died in the 
midst of his activities and usefulness. 

Elisha Tucker Jackson, son of James and 
Julia Jackson, was Ijorn in Middleljoro, Au- 
gust 23, 1829, and (lied June 30, 1908, in 



Taunton, aged seventy-eight years, ten 
nuiUths and seven days. He had tilled a 
large place in the liusiness life of his adopted 
citv, and that comnuniity held him in high 
regard for his ability, integrity and willing- 
ness to be of" service at all times, and for 
his courtesy and social friendliness. In his 
coming to Taunton the city gainetl a most 
worthy citizen, as in his death it lost one. 

The son, James Frederick Jackson, was 
fitted for college in the schools of Taunton, 
and then entered Harvard University, from 
which he was graduated in 1873. He 
studied law in the office of Judge Edmund 
H. Bennett and at the Boston University 
Law School, from which he received his de- 
gree in 1875. He began the practice of law 
in the city of Fall River, and in 1882 formed 
a law partnership with David F. Slade, 
which became Jackson, Slade & Borden, 
upon the admission of Richard P. Borden. 
]\[r. Jackson is a Republican in politics, and 
it was not long after he began his profes- 
sional career that he won recognition in the 
public affairs of Fall River; his ability as 
a lawver being attested in 1880, by his selec- 
tion as Citv Solicitor, an office he tilled with 
srreat credit for nine rears. His familiaritv 
with municipal affairs, and his general fit- 
ness for the position, letl to his nomination 
by his party for mayor in 1888. He was 
elected to that office and was again chosen 
in 1889. ]\Ir. Jackson declined the nomina- 
tion for Justice of the Superior Court of 
Massachusetts in 1898, and was chairman 
of the Massachusetts Railroad Commission 
from 1899 until 1907, when he resigned. 
He was formerly Lieutenant Colonel in the 
1st Infantry Massachusetts National Guard, 
rising to that position from the ranks. Mr. 
Jackson is a member of the Union and St. 
Botolph Clubs of Boston and the Harvard 
Club of New York. He was married to 
Caroline S. Thurston of Fall River, June 15, 
1882, and has one daughter, Edith. His 
home is at 1757 Beacon Street, Ikookline, 
and his offices are at 60 State Street. 



408 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



JAMES A. VITELLI 

James A. Vitelli, one of the leading mem- 
bers of the junior bar, was born in Italy, 
April 25th, 1886, the son of Antonio and 




JAMES A. VITELLI 

Filomena (Berardi) Vitelli. He was 
brought to the United States when an in- 
fant, the family settling in New York City, 
but later removing to Boston, where the 
father established himself in business. Mr. 
Vitelli was educated in the Boston public 
schools and was a prominent athlete while 
a student at the English High School. He 
was graduated from the Boston University 
Law School in 1909. Air. Vitelli's prac- 
tice is extensive and varied, and when only 
two years at the bar, he defended Joseph 
Galli, who was indicted for the killing of 
Charles O'Brien of Woburn, and secured 
his client's acquittal after five days of mas- 
terly effort. Mr. Vitelli's paternal ances- 
tors are noted in the legal profession of 
Italy, and his uncle, Dionisio Vitelli, is now 
a member of the Court of Cassation at 
Rome. The family was active in the move- 
ment to secure Italian independence, and in 
the Revolution of 1848, one of the progeni- 



tors, Antonio Vitelli, an archbishop, was 
exiled by the Bourbons on account of his 
aggressiveness. Mr. Vitelli was married 
August 20, 1913, to Madeline M. Dalton of 
Arlington. His offices are in the Pember- 
ton Buildins:. 



The railroad in America was a Boston 
idea, originating in Boston, and the "Father 
of the American Railroad" was a Boston 
editor. 

LEONARD G. ROBERTS 

Leonard G. Roberts, lawyer, was born 
in Sherman, Maine, September 13, 1862, 
the son of Gardiner and Adaline Rolierts. 
After thorough 
j)reparation he en- 
tered Bates Col- 
lege, from which he 
graduated in 1887 
with the degree of 
A.B. He graduated 
from the Boston | 
University Law 
School magna cum] 
laude with the de- 
gree of LL.B. in I 

1890. He was ad- 
mitted to the Suf- 
folk County Bar 
the same year, and 
the Maine Bar in 

1891. He practiced in Lewiston. Maine, 
until 1893, since which time he has been 
located in Boston. His practice is a gen- 
eral one and his offices are in the Equitable 
Building. He is a member of the U. S. 
District Court and the U. S. Circuit Court 
of Appeals, and was a member of the Mas- 
sachusetts House of Representatives in 
1910, and served on the Judiciary Commit- 
tee. Mr. Roberts is a member of the Bar 
Association of the City of Boston, the 
American Bar Association, the Boston 
Chamber of Commerce, the Masonic Fra- 
ternity and the Dorchester Young Alen's 
Repul)lican, Massachusetts Repuljlican, Park 
Street, and Congregational Clubs. He was 
married January 23, 1899, to Mary E. 
Leavitt of Lewiston, Maine, and resides 
at 80 Highland Avenue, Newtimville, Mass. 




LEONARD C. ROBERTS 



THK BOOK OF BOSTON 



4(W 



HON. WILLIAM M. BUTLER 

William I\I. Butler, lawyer, legislator and 
financier, was born in New Bedford, Mass., 
January 29, 1861, the son of Reverend 




HON. WILLIAM M. BUTLER 



James D. and Eliza B. (Place) Butler. 
After a preliminary education in the public 
schools he entered the Boston University 
Law School and graduated LL.B. in 1884. 
His admission to the bar was one year 
earlier, and he began practice in New Bed- 
ford, removing to Boston in 1895, now be- 
ing senior member of the legal firm of But- 
ler, Cox, Murchie & Bacon, with offices at 
77 Franklin Street. Mr. Butler is president of 
the Boston & Worcester Electric Companies, 
the Boston & W^orcester Street Railway Co., 
the Butler Mill, the Iloosac Cotton Mills, 
the New Bedford Cotton Mills Corporation 
and the Ouisset Mill. He is also tru.stee 
of the Massachusetts Lighting Companies. 
He was a memlier of the Massachusetts 
House of Representatives in 1890-1891, and 
the State Senate from 1892 to 1895 inclu- 
sive, serving as president of the latter body 
during the last two years of his term. He 
was a member of the (Commission to revise 



statutes of the State from 1896 to 1900, 
when he resigned. He is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity, trustee of the Boston 
L'niversitv, and holds membership in the 
University Club, of which he is president; 
the Algonquin and Exchange Clubs of Bos- 
ton; LInion League of New York; Wam- 
sutta Club of New Bedford, and the Meta- 
l)etchuan Fishing and Game Club. Mr. 
Butler was married in 1886, to Minnie 
F. Norton of Edgartown, who died in 1905, 
leaving three children, Morgan, Gladys and 
Miriam. His second marriage was to Mary 
Lothroj) Webster of Boston, in 1907, and 
this uiii(in brought two daughters, Beatrice 
and Mary. II is lidine is at 486 Beacon 
Street, Boston. 

PATRICK BERNARD KIERNAN 

Patrick B. Kiernan, one of the oldest 
attorneys in the city, was born in the North 
End, March 2, 1S50, and was educated in 
the public schools, 
at night school, and 
in private schools 
in Boston and Chel- 
sea. After study- 
ing law and admis- 
sion to the Bar. Mr. 
Kiernan began 
practice in Colo- 
rado and was 
member of the le- 
gal firm of Shackle- 
ford & Kiernan of 
Leadville. Upon re- 
turning to Boston 
Mr. Kiernan lo- 
cated at 34 School 
.Street, where he has practiced fur tlie last 
thirty-two years. His practice is a miscel- 
laneous one, his clients being mostly poor 
working people. He has brought on an 
average one hundred and fifty actions every 
\ear for the jiast twenty-five years, and has 
tried at least sevent}--five civil and twenty- 
five criminal ca.ses each year during the 
same ]>erii kI. 




PATRICK B. KIKRNAN 



410 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



HON. WILLIAM A. MORSE 

Hon. William A. Morse, attorney, with 
offices in the Equitable Building, was born 
Julv 2"/, 1863, in Boston, and was educated 




HON. WILLIAM A. MORSE 



at ^Martha's \'ineyard, Alass., and in the law 
schools of Boston. Upon admission to the 
Bar he began practice in this city in 1886 
and is now interested in many insurance and 
other corporations as counsel and director. 
As a trial lawyer he has figured in many im- 
portant cases. He was of counsel for the es- 
tate of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy in the contest 
over her will. Acted as counsel for the 
defense in the Richeson case and success- 
fully defended the widow of Admiral Eaton, 
who was charged with the murder of her 
husband. Air. Morse is a Republican in 
politics and represented the county of Dukes 
in the Alassachusetts House of Represen- 
tatives in 1893. He served as Senator from 
the Cape district during the sessions of 
1895-6-7 and 8, the last two years being a 
memljer of the joint Judiciary Committee. 
While in the lower house he was chairman 
of the Harbor and Pu1)lic Lands Committee 
and a meml)er of the Committee on Insur- 



ance. Mr. Morse is a member of the 
Masonic Fraternity, the Boston Yacht, 
Boston City, Boston Press and the Elks 
Clubs. He was married October 2, 1883, to 
Florence B. Daggett, of Martha's Vineyard, 
who died June 7, 1916, leaving two sons. 



This publication promises to be of great 
value within a score of years. Copies of it 
will be at a premium as the years make its 
pages into history. 

GEORGE A. O. ERNST 
(deceased) 

George Alexander Otis Ernst (l)orn No- 
vember 8, 1850; died June 13, 191 2) spent 
his childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, but fin- 
ished his education at school in Boston and 
at Harvard College, where he took his A.B. 
degree in 1871. He later studied at the 
Harvard Law School, and began an active 
and general practice of law in Boston in 
1875, continuing it until his death. He mar- 
ried Jeanie Clarke Bynner in 1879, and was 
the father of a son, Roger, and a daughter, 
Sarah Otis, who married Edwin Hale Ab- 
bot, Jr., of Cambridge, Mass. 

The significant features of Mr. Ernst's 
puljlic life were, in chronological order (i I 
his service in the Massachusetts Legislature 
in 1883-84, when he served on important 
committees and aided effectively in the pas- 
sage of the first Civil Service Reform Law ; 
(2) his service on the Boston School Com- 
mittee in 1901-1903, when he led in the 
fight to free the schools from politics; and 
(3), most important of all, his service as 
a member of the original Finance Commis- 
sion, appointed in 1907, whose unremitting 
labors resulted in the exposure of much 
inefficiency, favoritism, and corruption in 
the city government, and led to the adop- 
tion of sweeping amendments to the city 
charter in the interest of civic betterment. 
The original drafting of those amendments 
was done by Mr. Ernst. In 1910 he was 
appointed director of the Bureau of Mu- 
nicipal Research, and, among other services 
while so acting, prepared for the Finance 
Commission a valuable History of the Pulj- 
lic School Svstem of Boston. 



tup: book of boston 



411 



HOX. JAMES WILSON GRIMES 
Hon. James Wilson Grimes, lawyer, 
financier and legislator, was born in Hills- 
borough, N. H., November 21, 1865, at- 




HON. JAMES \V. GRIMES 

tending the schools there and completing his 
classical education at Phillips ( Andover ) 
Academ\-. He then entered the Boston 
University Law School, from which he grad- 
uated in 1890. He was admitted to the Bar 
in Iowa the same year, and returning to Bos- 
ton in 1 89 1, began active practice here. Mr. 
Grimes became interested in politics early in 
his career and served three years in the 
lower branch of the Massacliusetts Legisla- 
ture and three years in the Senate. While 
serving on the last named bod\- lie was a 
meml)er of the Judiciary Committee and 
Chairman of the Street Railway Commit- 
tee, beside taking an active part in all the 
important legislation that came before the 
two houses during his }ears of memljership. 
He w^as also a member of the Republican 
State Central Committee in 1910, 191 1, 
191 2, and in 19 13 was a candidate for nom- 
inaticjn for Congress from Middlesex. IMr. 
Grimes is vice-president and direclur of the 



First National Bank of Reading, ^Mass., 
where he resides, and is a director of the 
Hillsborough Electric Light and Power Co., 
and president and director of the \'ictory 
Webbing Company, and an incorporator of 
the Blackstone Savings Bank, Boston. He 
is a meml)er of the ^lasonic Fraternity, the 
Odd Fellows, the Grange, the Meado\\i)rook 
Golf Clul) of Reading, the New Hampshire 
Historical Society, the Loyal Legion, the 
Sons of Veterans, the Republican Clul) of 
Massachusetts, the Middlesex Club and the 
Boston and Middlesex Bar Associations. 
Flis offices are at 6 Beacon Street. 

HON. ASA P. FRENCH 
Asa P. French was born at Eraintree, 
}klass., January 29, i860. After prepara- 
tion at the English High School, Boston, 
Adams Academy, 
where he won the 
Adams gold metlal, 
and Thayer Acad- 
enn', he entered 
Yale and graduated 
A.B. in 1882. Fie 
studied law at the 
Boston L'niversitv 
Law School and in 
the office of bis 
father. Judge Asa 
French, and was 
admitted to the Bar 
in 1885. He was 
district attorney 
of the Southeastern '""'■ '^'^'^ ■"■ ''"''"^"^ 

District of Massachusetts from 1902 to 
1906, and LTnited States Attorney for Mas- 
sachusetts from January, 1906, to Novem- 
ber, 1914. He is a director of the Norfolk 
Mutual Fire Insurance Co. of Dedham, 
^Nlass., president of the Tremont Tru.st Co. 
of Boston, trustee of the Randolph Savings 
Bank, of which he was formerly president, 
and trustee of Thayer Academy, Braintree. 
Mr. French is president of the Norfolk 
County Bar Association, deputy governor- 
general of the Society of Mayflower De- 
scendants, and a member of several leading 
chilis. 





]. OTIS WARDWELL 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



41,1 



J. OTIS WARDWELL 



Of the leadinj;- nienil)ers of the les^al fra- 
ternity it has been my pleasure tti meet and 
associate with, J. Otis \Var(l\veIl stands 
among the foremost in my recollection. 

Mr. W'ardwell is identified with a num- 
ber of large pulilic utilities of Boston and 
the State of Massachusetts and has led in 
the organization of many of them. 

He was born in Lowell, Mass., March 14, 
1857, the son of Zenas C. and Adriana S. 
Wardwell, who in i860 moved to Groveland, 
Mass. After passing through the George- 
town High School and the New London 
Acadeni}-, he studied law at the Boston Uni- 
versity Law' School and was graduated in 
1879, being admitted to the Essex County 
Bar the same year. He settled in Haverhill 
in 1879 and formed a partnership with 
Henry Nelerton Merrill. He soon became 
interested in politics and was elected to the 
Republican State Committee in 1884, serv- 
ing as a member for twenty-five years, three 
of which were as secretary. In 1887, he was 
elected to the Legislature, being Republican 
tloor leader for four years of the five he 
was a member. He was twice a candidate 
for Speaker Ijy the Re])ublican caucus, being 
defeated for the nomination by only two 
votes in i8(_)i, after one of the most bitter 
contests in the history of the State. Dur- 
ing his time as memljer of the Legislature, 
he was Chairman of some of the most im- 
portant committees, among them being the 
Committees on Elections and Mercantile 
Affairs. He was also a member of the com- 
mittee that investigated the charge of cor- 
ruption in the division of the town of Bev- 
erly, and was chairman of a committee that 
investigated similar charges in the incor- 
poration of certain elevated railways in the 
city of Boston. 

After leaving the Legislature he moved 
to Boston and became identified with a num- 
ber of I'ul)lic Service Corporations, as coun- 
sel for the Industrial lin[iro\einent Co., 
which controlled the street railways in the 
Merrimac \'alley. He carried through tlie 
Legislature a Consolidation Hill uniting the 
Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill street rail- 



wavs, one of the first long distance trolley 
lines in the country, and for many years 
was its general counsel. In 1891, he brought 
to success the consolidation of the Ih'ockton 
street railways and of the Lynn and Boston 
and Salem lines, which were owned Iiy the 
North Shore Traction Co. The following 
year he became general counsel for the Edi- 
son Electric Illuminating Co., of Boston, and 
still retains the position. He was counsel for 
the Bell Telephone Co., of Boston, in its 
contest to increase its capital stock to 
$50,000,000, which bill was vetoed l)y Gov- 
ernor Greenhalge. He was also counsel for 
the New York Central Railroad in its con- 
test for the right to lease the Boston & Al- 
bany Railroad, counsel for the Boston Con- 
solidated (ias Co., and the Massachusetts 
Pipe Line Co., for the consolidation of all 
the gas properties. He was counsel for the 
Association of Massachusetts (las Lighting 
Companies and the Electric Lighting Asso- 
cation of Massachusetts. He became gen- 
eral counsel of the Boston Elevated Rail- 
road, which in 1896 leased the West End 
Railway Company and the subways, and 
amended the Meigs Charter for elevated 
railways in the city of Boston. In Novem- 
ber, 1903, Mr. Wardwell formed a jiartner- 
ship with I'^verett W. Burdett and Charles 
A. Snow under the firm name of Ikirdett, 
AVardwell & Snow. In 1905 this firm was 
changed liy the admission of Hon. William 
H. Motjd}-, then Secretary of the Navy, be- 
coming Moody, Burdett, Wardwell & Snow. 
< )n the appointment of Mr. Moody as a 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, December 17, 1906, Judge Moody 
and Mr. Snow retired, Mr. W'ardwell and 
Mr. Burdett continuing as Burdett & Ward- 
well. Frederick ]\Ianley Ives and Sheldon 
E. Wardwell were admitted to partnership 
in June, 19 12, under the name of Burdett, 
Wardwell & Ives. In these various enter- 
prises Mr. Wardwell was very active and 
soon became nationally known as a lead- 
ing corporation lawyer. Mr. Wardwell's 
and his associates' energies are devoted to 
corporation law. 



414 



THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 



ROLAND H. SHERMAN 
Roland H. Sherman, who is an attorney 
for numerous large estates and corpora- 
tions, and active in the trial of causes both 




ROLAND H. SHERMAN 



in the civil and criminal courts, was born in 
Lawrence, Mass., November 30, 1873, and 
was educated at Dummer Academy and 
Boston L^niversity Law School, obtaining 
the LL.B. degree from the latter upon 
graduation in 1896. After admission to the 
Bar he began practice in Lawrence, where 
he was a member of the legal firm of Bradley 
& Sherman, subsequently becoming senior 
member of Sherman & Ford, and finally of 
Sherman & Sherman, covering a period of 
nine years in the city of his liirth. Desiring 
to widen the field of his activity, Mr. Sher- 
man came to Boston in 1905 as a member 
of the legal fraternity of Coakley & Sher- 
man. This partnership was eventually dis- 
solved and Mr. Sherman organized the firm 
of Sherman & Hurd, now located in the 
Pemberton Building. He is a Republican 



in politics and was, for six years, assistant 
district attorney of Essex County, in which 
position he made an enviable record as 
a capable and conscientious official. Mr. 
Sherman comes of an illustrious ancestry. 
He is a lineal descendant of Roger Sherman, 
one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, and numbers among his 
family connections the late General William 
Tecumseh Sherman, who became famous by 
his "March to the Sea," and was afterwards 
commander-in-chief of the Army of the 
L^nited States, and the late Hon. John Sher- 
man, who framed the celebrated "Sherman 
Law." His father, Hon. Edgar J. Sherman, 
was a judge of the Massachusetts Superior 
Court for over twenty years. Although a 
comparatively voung man, Mr. Sherman 
has attained prominence in his chosen pro- 
fession and won distinction in the field of 
military activity. He served in the Spanish- 
American War, first as lieutenant in the 
8th Massachusetts Infantry, and then as 
aide-de-camp on the staff of General 
Waite, commandant of the 2nd Brigade, 
3rd Division, ist Army Corps, and was 
finally made Judge Advocate of the 
3rd Division, ist Army Corps, retiring 
from the service with the rank of 
Lieutenant-Colonel. He is now Judge Ad- 
vocate General of the Spanish War Vet- 
erans, a member of the Naval and Military 
Order of the Spanish-American War, So- 
ciety of Foreign Wars, Sons of Veterans, 
the Masonic Order, the Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks and the Sigma 
Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. Mr. Sherman 
was married April 5, 1898, to Alma C. 
Haerle of Indianapolis. They have five 
children, Julie P., Edgar Jay, 2nd, Roger, 
Nancy, and Roland H., Jr. Their home is 
in Winchester on the shore of Mystic 
Lake. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



415 



HON. ARTHUR H. WELLMAN 

Arthur H. Wellniaii, who despite his large 
legal practice has found time to devote to 
the activities of business, was liorn at East 




HON. ARTHUR H. WELLMAN 



Randoljih, now IIi)ll)r(iok, Octoljer 30, 1855. 
He was educated at the Newton Schools and 
Amherst College, delivering the valedictorx' 
at the latter in 1878. He studied law at 
Harvard and Boston University Law 
Schools, graduating from the latter summa 
cum laude in 1882. He served as City Solic- 
itor of Maiden and professor of et|uity 
jurisprudence and e(|uity pleading at the 
Boston University Law School, was a mem- 
Iier of the Legislature 1892 to 1894 and of 
tlie Senate in 1895. He is a director of the 
Ames])ury Electric Light Co., trustee of 
Central Massachusetts Light and I'ower 
Co., director of White River Railroad Co. 
and the Maiden Trust Co., president of the 
Maiden Hospital, vice-president of the Wey- 
mouth Light and Power Co., president of 
the Board of Ministerial Aid of Massa- 
chusetts, and is a meniher of the Boston 



and American Bar Associations, Congrega- 
tional Club, Maiden Historical Society and 
the Masonic Eratemity. 

Tllo.MAS WILLI. \.M I'ROCTOR 

Thomas \\ . I'roctor was liorn in Hollis, 
X. IL. Xo\eniber 20, 1858, and was edu- 
cated at Lawrence Acadenn-, ( iroton, ^lass., 
and Dartmouth College. He studied law 
in the office of Hon. John H. Hard\- and at 
the Boston Universit\- Law School. He was 
admitted to the Bar in 1883 and one year 
later was made clerk to the district attorney 
of Suffolk County, later becoming a member 
of the legal firm of Hardy, Elder & Proctor. 
He was appointed second assistant district 
attorney for the Suffolk district in 1866 and 
then to the first assistancy. In 1891 he be- 
came assistant solicitor of the city's law 
department, but resigned in 1894 to resume 
regtilar practice, being now a member of the 
firm of Xason & Proctor. He is a member 
(if the Boston Bar Association, Countr\-. 




THONLXS W. PROC ruR 

University and Curtis Clul)S, the Beacon So- 
ciety, and is a trustee of the Hamilton As- 
sociation, the Newton Free Library, and the 

Newton Savings Bank of Newton, Mass. 




EDWIN A. BAYLIiY 



THK I^OOK OF BOSTON 



41' 



Edwin Allen Bayley, la\v\er and legis- 
lator, was born in Jamaica Plain, Boston, 
Mass., Jnly 30, 1862, the son of Edwin and 
Vesta (Capen) Barley. He is a descend- 
ant, in the fuurth generation, of Brigadier 
(ieneral Jacol) Ba\ley, who served with dis- 
tinction in the French and Indian and Revo- 
Intionary Wars, fountled the Town of 
Newbury, Vt., in 1762, and held very prom- 
inent and important offices during the early 
history of that State. The paternal Ijranch 
of his family was founded in America l)y 
John Ba}ly, who came from Englaiul in 
1635 and settled in that part of Amesbur\ , 
Mass., now known as Salisbury Point. His 
earliest maternal ancestor in this country 
was Barnard Capen, who came from Eng- 
land in 1630, and who was one of the ear- 
liest settlers of Dorchester, Mass. Mr. 
Bayley received his preliminary education 
in the public and private schools of New- 
bury, Vt., and at St. Johnsbury (Vt.) 
Academy, from which he graduated with 
high rank in 1881. While at the Academy 
he was one of the editors of the "Academy 
Student," the school paper, and was one of 
the speakers at graduation. He pursued 
the regular classical course at Dartmouth 
College, graduating with the degree A.B., 
in the Class of 1885. During his college 
course he served as president and treasurer 
of his class, was a director of the athletic 
association, a member of the Delta Kap])a 
Epsilon F'raternity and of the Phi P.eta 
Kappa Societ}', delivering at Commence- 
ment one of the two philosophical orations 
assigned for scholarship, ranking next to 
the salutatory. For a short time after 
le taught a private school in 



graduation 

Newbury, \'t., and then engaged in the 
mortgage loan business in Dakota, l)Ut not 
being satisfied with the future of that busi- 
ness, he decided to stud}' law, and, in 1889, 
entered the Law School of lioston Uni- 
versity. There he completed the regular 
three-year course in two years, graduating 
in the Class of 1891, with the degree 
of LL.B., lUtKjua citiii hiiitli-. and while 



EDWIN ALLEN BAYLEY 

at the Law School he served as president 
of his class. He was admitted to the Suf- 
folk County Bar in 1891 and to the L-nited 
State Courts in 1898. 

In 1892, Mr. Bayley and John H. Colby, 
one of his classmates at Dartmouth, asso- 
ciated themselves together for the practice 
of their profession in Boston under the 
firm name of Colby & Bayley, which con- 
tinued until the death of Mr. Colby in 1909. 
In his practice, Mr. Bayley is strong, force- 
ful and thorough. His energy and his en- 
thusiasm are his marked characteristics, and 
he has earned a well-deserved success. 
Since 1892 he has resided in Lexington. 
where he has taken a leading part in public 
affairs, serving as a member of the school 
committee, liljrary trustee, moderator of 
town meetings anti general town counsel. 

He is counsel, clerk and a trustee of the 
North End Savings Bank of Boston, a mem- 
ber of the Board of Trustees of St. Johns- 
burv Acadenu', where he prepared for col- 
lege, and is the permanent secretary of his 
college class. He has served as president 
and secretary of the Bailey-Bayley Famih' 
Association, to the work of which he has 
added great value by his genealogical re- 
search and writing. He has also served as 
president of the General Alumni Associa- 
tion of Dartmouth College, and has prepared 
and delivered several historical and ^le- 
morial Day addresses. He holds member- 
ship in the Middlesex Bar Association, Mas- 
sachusetts Conveyancers Association, the 
DartuK luth Club, Boston City Club, Boston 
Chamlier of Commerce, Republican Cluli of 
Alassachusetts, ^Middlesex Club, A'ermont 
Association of Boston, X'ermont Historical 
Society, Lexington Historical Society, Old 
Belfry Club of Lexington, and is an asso- 
ciate member of the George G. Meade Post 
119, G. A. I\., of F,exington. His religious 
affiliations arc with the Orthodox Congre- 
gational Church. 

In politics ^Ir. Baxley h;is always been a 
Rei)ubHcan, and in 1909 and again in 1910, 
when he was reelected without an opposing 
vote, he was a member of the ALassachusett.-v 



418 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



House of Representatives, where his sound 
judgment and ability as a speaker and de- 
bater won for him a place among the ablest 
members of that body. To him more than 
to any one else is due the credit for the 
enactment of the measure known as the 
"Safe and Sane Fourth of July" law which 
ended the mainifacture and sale in Massa- 
chusetts of death-dealing firecrackers and 
bombs, and in recognition of his leadership 
in this matter, Governor Draper presented 
him with one of the pens with which the bill 
was signed. As a member of the Commit- 
tee on Railroads, he was a close student of 
all transportation questions affecting the in- 
terests of the Commonwealth. He drafted 
and urged the passage of the first bill 
for a tunnel connecting the North and 
South stations in Boston, and his speeches 
on transportation matters were among the 
ablest heard in years on Beacon Hill. The 
following are some of the current news- 
pa])er estimates of his work as a legislator : 

"Bayley is one of the leaders in the 
House, one of its best orators." 

"He is of a class of men rarely found, 
ain fortunately, willing to give their time and 
their splendid talents to the service of their 
iellows in public service." 

"He has shown himself one of the ablest 
and most fearless and aggressive legisla- 
tors that has sat in either branch of the 
Massachusetts Legislature for many years ; 
he, like all strong men, possesses deep con- 
victions, and one is sure to admire and re- 
spect him." 

"Representative Bayley has won for him- 
self an enviable reputation as one of the 
really powerful men in the affairs of State 
legislation." 

During Mr. Bayley's first legislative 
term the Massachusetts State Board of In- 
sanity contracted for land near Lexington 
Center on which to erect an asylum. Mr. 
3ayley aroused the citizens to an apprecia- 



tion of the disadvantage of such a location 
and led in the successful efforts which pre- 
vented its fulfillment. For this important 
service he received a public vote of thanks 
in town meeting. 

In connection with the celebration of the 
150th anniversary of the settlement of the 
Town of Newbury, Vermont, held in Au- 
gust, 1912, Mr. Bayle}' planned and secured 
the erection of a large and impressive 
granite monument, suitably inscribed and 
prominently located on the village common 
to commemorate the life and public services 
of his distinguished ancestor, General Jacob 
Bayley above referred to. The monument 
was dedicated as a part of the anniversary 
e.xercises and Mr. Bayley delivered the 
dedicatory address. 

Mr. Bayley was married June 15, 1892, 
to Lucia A., daughter of Doctor Eustace V. 
and Emily (Tenney) Watkins, of Newbury, 
Yt., and they have one daughter, J^Iarian 
Vesta Bayley. 

Mr. Bayley has always been fond of 
horses and until the advent of automobiles, 
his chief out-of-doors recreation was horse- 
back riding and road and speedway driving; 
he has now, however, become an enthusiastic 
automobilist. 

Mr. Bayley has, for many years, been 
a great admirer of Daniel Webster, 
maintaining that no other one American 
has stood preeminent as a lawyer, an orator 
and a statesman, and it has been one of his 
pastimes to collect portraits of Webster, 
until today he has the largest collection of 
Websterian ])ictures ever gathered to- 
gether, and his law offices are also a Web- 
ster picture gallery. 

Mr. Bayley believes that the liest prepara- 
tion for success is as broad and thorough an 
education as possible ; a determination to be 
honest and fair with one's self and others; 
a purpose to do one's best earnestly and 
enthusiastically and a willingness to work 
and not shirk. 



THK BOOK OF ROSTOX 



41Q 



HON. GUY W. COX 

(niy W. Cox, of the legal firm of Butler, 
■Cox, Murchie & Bacon, was born in Man- 
chester, N. H., January 19, 187 r. Dart- 



sachusetts Bar Association, the Ijcjston Bar 
Association, the Social Law Library, and 
the L'niversity, New Hampshire, Wollaston 
and Repul)lican Clubs. His offices are at 77 
Franklin Street. 




HON. GUY \V. COX 

mouth College conferred the A.B. degree 
upon him in 1893, and A.^L in 1896. The 
same year he graduated magna cum laude 
from the Boston University Law School. 
Since admission to the Bar he has practiced 
in Boston, specializing in life insurance, 
street railways and gas companies. For 
many years Mr. Cox was interested in city 
and state politics, and held many positions 
of trust. Fie was a member of the Boston 
Common Council in 1902, Representative 
from the loth Suffolk District in the Mas- 
sachusetts Legislature in 1903 and 1904, 
and Senator from the 5th Suffolk District 
in 1906 and 1907. He also served as Chair- 
man of the delegates to the National Tax 
Conference in 1907, and Chairman of the 
Commission on Taxation for Massachusetts 
in 1907. Mr. Cox is a trustee of the Boston 
and Worcester Electric Companies, and 
vice-president and trustee of the Merriniac 
\'alley Electric Company. Fie is a member 
of the American Bar Association, the Mas- 




HI.KI.ls K. BAILEY 



IIOLLIS R. BAILEY 

Frouiinent among the able lawyers of 
Boston is Hollis R. Fjailey, son of Otis and 
Lucinda Aldcn ( Loi-ing ) Bailey, Ijrith of 
English stock, the 
paternal 1) r a n c h 
having lieen estab- 
lished in America 
l:)y James Bailev. 
who settled in 
Rowley about 1640. 
John Bailey of the 
second generation 
perished in the ex- 
pedition a g a i n s t 
Canada in i6i)o, 
and Samuel Bailey 
of the fifth genera- 
tion was killed at 
the battle of F)un- 
ker Hill. The ma- 
ternal side ilates from 1635, when Thomas 
Loring settled in Hingham. The mother 
was also a direct descendant of John Alden. 
Mr. Bailey was born February 24, 1852, at 
X^orth Andover and received his preparatory 
education at Phillips (Andover) Academy. 
He graduated A.B. from Harvard in 1877, 
obtaining the LL.B. degree in 1878, and the 
degree of A.AL in 1879. He was admitted 
to the Bar in 1880, since which time he 
has figured in much important litigation. 
He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar 
Association, the Boston Bar Association, 
the American Bar Association, and Chair- 
man of the State Board of Bar Examiners 
and of the Board of Commissioners for the 
Promotion of Uniformity of Legislation in 
the United States. He was married Feb- 
ruary 12, 1885, to Mary Persis Bell, daugh- 
ter of ex-Governor Charles H. Bell of 
Exeter, N. H. 



420 



THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 



WILLIAM R. SCHARTON 

William R. Scharton of the law firm of 
McVey, Scharton & McVey, 40 Court 
Street, was born in Aarau, Switzerland, 




WILLIAM R. SCHARTON 



November 15, 1874. At a very early age, 
accompanied by his mother he came to the 
United States and settled in Virginia. 

He received his preliminarj' education at 
Monticello Military Academy, subsequently 
entering Yale University and completing his 
legal education at New York L^niversity 
Law School. At the termination of his law 
studies he commenced practice in Hartford, 
Connecticut, but also maintained an office in 
New York City, having been admitted as a 
member of the Bar of both Connecticut and 
New York. In 1905 he removed to Boston 
and has since continually appeared before 
the courts of Massachusetts. 

Mr. Scharton's practice, while embracing 
practically the whole field of the law. has in 
a great measure been confined to criminal 
and probate cases and he has conducted a 
number of important trials. The one case, 
however, with which his name is more 
closelv identified than all others is the fa- 



mous Russell case in which he appeared as 
counsel for "Dakota Dan." This case pre- 
sented one of the strangest situations ever 
brought to the attention of a judicial tri- 
bunal. The case involved a question of 
identity between two individuals, each claim- 
ing to be Daniel Blake Russell of Melrose, 
Mass., and the heir to the large Russell for- 
tune. The case occupied 164 trial days and 
140 witnesses were examined. The finding 
of the court was against Mr. Scharton's 
client and in favor of the so-called "Fresno 
Dan." 

By a judicial adjudication the Russell case 
was terminated, but one strange feature has 
never yet Ijeen satisfactorily explained, and 
that is, why if Dakota Dan was found to be 
an "impostor and perjurer," that no criminal 
action was ever undertaken against him even 
though every effort was made both by Mr. 
Scharton and Dakota Dan, himself, to have 
the latter indicted in order that a jury of 
twelve men might determine the question as 
to the legitimacy of the claimant's identity. 
The Russell case resembled the famous 
Tichbourne case tried in England, except 
that the English courts followed out their 
decree to its logical conclusion by punishing 
criminally those whom they had legally ad- 
judicated criminals. Dakota Dan Russell's 
rights were never determined by a jury. 

Mr. Scharton resides in Reading, Mass., 
where he owns and occupies the extensive 
Patricia Farm, and where he forgets his 
legal cares by diverting them to the raising 
of fancy fowl. 

EVERETT WATSON BURDETT 

Everett Watson Burdett, senior member 
of the law firm of Burdett, Wardwell & 
Ives, was born in Mississippi of Northern 
parents, April 5, 1854. His earliest ances- 
tor in this country was Robert Burdett, who 
came from England and settled in ISIalden, 
Mass., prior to 1653. Graduating from the 
Boston University Law School in 1877, Mr. 
Burdett began practice, in 1878, in Boston, 
in the office of Charles Allen, afterwards a 
Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. He 
then served for a time as Assistant L^nited 



TUK BOOK OF BOSTON 



421 



States Attorney for the District of Massa- 
chusetts, but since 1881 has devoted himself 
exclusively to private practice. He has 
acted as general counsel of the Alassachu- 




EVERETT \V. bUKUETT 



setts Electric and Gas Association since its 
organization in 1889, and of the National 
Electric Lighting Association since 1909. 
He has also been counsel for the Boston 
Edison Companv f(ir inan\- years and for 
many other pul)lic service companies in 
Massachusetts and elsewhere, inclu<ling tlie 
United Gas Improvement Company of 
Philadelphia, the Massachusetts Electric 
Companies, the Massachusetts Street Rail- 
way Association, the Fitchburg Railroad 
Company and others, and was for five years 
special master in the suit of the Western 
Union Telegraph Co. z's. the American Bell 
Telephone Co., in which his finding of sev- 
eral million dollars damages for the plaintiff 
was sustained by the Federal Courts. He 
is the author of numerous addresses and 
papers upmi the thenrv and practice of 
municipal ownership and n{\\vv public 
utility questions. He has for many years 
been a member of the Council of the I'ar 
Association of the Cit\' of iloston, and is 



a member of the .American and Massachu- 
setts Bar Associations. Fie is a director or 
trustee in the Boston Edison Company, the 
Champion International (])aper) Company, 
the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, the 
Massachusetts Electric Companies and the 
Massachusetts HomcEpathic Hospital, and 
has been the lecturer on medical jurispru- 
dence in the Boston University School of 
Medicine for twenty years. Fie is a Re- 
publican in politics, and was one of the or- 
ganizers of the Republican Club of Massa- 
chusetts, and served as president of the 
Republican City Committee in 1893-1894. 
His clubs are the Algonquin, Exchange, 
City, Country, Engineers, Curtis and Bev- 
erly Yacht Clubs. He married Maud War- 
ner of Boston, and has two children, [Marion, 
wife of Prescott Bigelow, Jr., and Paul 
Burdett, both residing in Boston. 

HORATIO NELSON ALLIN 

Horatio N. Allin was bcirn in Guildhall, 
\'t., August 7, 1848, and was educated at 
the (iorham Seminary, Maine and Dart- 
mouth College. I le 
was a Professor in 
the Universit}- of 
Tokio, Japan, from 
1874 to 1877, and 
upon his return to 
this country he en- 
tered Harvard Law 
School, from which 
he graduated in 
1879. He began 
practice at Wal- 
tham and Boston 
and has offices at 
15 Beacon Street. 
Mr. Allin comes of 




an old New Eng- 



land famil}-, 
coming here 



HOKATIO N. ALLIN 

the first Anu'rican forbear 
from b'ngland in the seven- 
teenth centur\ . lie is a member of the 
Middlesex and Norfolk I'ar Associations, 
the Odd Fellows, and was for three years 
a memlier of the Board of Aklermen of 
Wallliam. 



422 



THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 



RANDOLPH FROTHINGHAM 

Randolph Frothingham, of the law firm 
of Channing & Frothingham, was born No- 
vember 24, 1883. After taking the degree 




RANDOLPH FROTHINGHAM 



of A.B. at Yale in 1905, he later entered the 
Harvard Law School and obtained the 
LL.B. degree with the class of 1908. He 
was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1907, 
and l)ecame associated in a legal capacity 
with the original Boston Finance Commis- 
sion. For two years he was associated witli 
the law firm of Tyler & Young, now Tyler, 
Corneau & Fames, where he remained until 
he formed his present partnership in 19 10, 
with Henry M., son of Dr. ^^'alter Channing 
of Brookline. Mr. Frothingham is de- 
scended from old New England ancestry, 
his paternal forbear being William Froth- 
insrham, who established the American 
branch of the family in 1630, while his ma- 
ternal progenitors first arrived in 1629. He 
is a member of the American Bar Associa- 
tion, the Massachusetts Bar Association 
and the Bar Association of the City of 
Boston, the Harvard Club of Boston, the 
Yale Clubs of Boston and New York, the 
Boston City Club and the Eastern Yacht 



He 



Club of Marblehead. He is a director of the 
American Core Twine Company, and an ac- 
tive member of the Chamber of Commerce, 
and, as such, was one of the invited party 
that went abroad in 191 1, preliminary to the 
5th International Congress of Chambers of 
Commerce of the World, held in Boston, 
1912, of which he was a member of the or- 
ganizing committee, and was a delegate to 
the 6th International Congress held in Paris 
in 1914. Mr. Frothingham's practice is a 
general one, and his offices are at 18 Tre- 
r.iont Street. 

RICHARD WASHBURN CHILD 

Richard ^Vashburn Child, who has at- 
tained prominence in law and as an author, 
\\as born at Worcester in 1881. 
tained degrees at , 
Harvard College 
and Harvard Law 
School in 1903 and 
1906 and was Class | 
O ffi c e r and Ivy 
Orator. In 1907, 
after a year as I 
Washington corres- 
pondent, he l^egan 
independent prac- 
tice of law. He 
was interested in 
the management of 
public service cor- 
j) orations from 
1908 until 19 1 3 but 
is now in the active practice of his profes- 
sion and business administration. His books 
are: "Jim Hands" (Macmillan), 1911; 
"The Man in Shadow" (Macmillan), 1912, 
and "The Blue Wall" (Houghton Mifflin 
Co.), 19 1 2. He is a constant contributor 
to magazines. Mr. Child is a member of 
the St. Botolph, Union Boat, Harvard Clubs 
of Boston and National Press Club of 
Washington. His ancestry is wholly New 
England. He never sought political office 
but interest in certain principles for state 
administration led him to manage the cam- 
paigns for governor of Charles Sumner 
Bird, who was a gubernatorial candidate. 




RICHARD \V. CHILD 



THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 



42.^ 




'?1'"'8illii inn liitiifiifj 



HOME lOR AGED MEN, l-i-> WEST SPRINGFIELD STREET, BOSTON 



HON. CHESTER W. CEARK 
Chester \\'. Clark, lawyer and legislator, 
was born in ( Ihjver, \'erninnt, and was edu- 
cated at the Orleans Eilieral Institute. \'er- 




HON. CHESTER VV. CLARK 



niont, and the l'hilli|)s (Exeter) Academy. 
After the cnnipletidu of his studies in law, 



he was admitted to the Alassachusetts bar, 
March u. 1S78, and shortly afterwards to 
the United States district and circuit courts. 
He has practiced in Sutifolk and AEddlesex 
Count}- ciiurts and has maintained offices in 
the E(juitable Building. Air. Clark was a 
member of the Massachusetts House of 
Re])resentatives in 1901, serving on the 
committee on the judiciary. During the 
years 1904, 1905, 1906, he was a member 
of the State Senate and acted as chairman 
of the joint committee on the judiciary and 
as chairman of the joint committee on pub- 
lic lighting. In committees and on the floor 
of the Senate he strongly advocated, and 
was largely instrumental in the adoption of 
the act relating to the identification of crim- 
inals by the aid of finger prints; the act re- 
lating to the release without arraignment in 
court of persons arrested for drunkenness; 
the act i)roviding for the enlargement of the 
court house in Boston by increasing its 
height instead of taking land and construct- 
ing a se])arate building; and the act provid- 
ing for the so-called sliding scale of the price 
of gas in the city of Boston. He also served 
as a member of the legislative committee 
ajipointecl to revise and consolidate the Pub- 
lic Statutes of Massachusetts in 1901. 



424 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



HOMER BAXTER SPRAGUE 

Homer Baxter Sprague, educator, lec- 
turer and author, is descended in direct line 
from William Sprague, one of the three 




HOMER BAXTER SPRAGUE 



33 



Spragues who founded Charlestown, Mass., 
in 1628. He was born in Sutton, Mass., 
Oct. 19, 1829. He was educated at 
Leicester, where he was valedictorian in 
1848, and at Yale, where he was class 
valedictorian and graduated A.B. in 1852, 
and A.M. in 1855. He studied in the Yale 
Law School in 1853-4, '^"'^1 afterwards 
at Worcester. He was principal of 
the \Wircester High School, 1850-61. He 
practiced law liriefly in New Haven, but 
relinquished it to enter the LTnion army. 
He raised two companies, and was succes- 
sively commissioned Captain, Major, Lieut. - 
Colonel, and Colonel. He was wounded in 
battle, and was a prisoner of war from Sep- 
tember, 1864, to Feljruary, 1865. Thence- 
forward he devoted himself exclusivelv to 
educational matters ; became principal of the 
Connecticut Normal School ; House chair- 
man of Committee on Education in the 
Connecticut legislature ; professor of rhet- 
oric and English literature in Cornell Uni- 



versity; i)rincipal of the Adelphi Academy, 
Brooklvn ; head master of the Girls' Hi^h 
School, Boston; founder and first president 
of the earliest summer school, the Martha's 
Vineyard Summer Institute; president. Mills 
College; president of the L'niversity of 
North Dakota ; professor. Drew Theological 
Seminary; president American Institute of 
Instruction; president of the North Dakota 
Teachers' Association ; first president of the 
Boston Watch and \\'ard Society; member 
of many fraternities, including Psi Upsilon, 
Scroll and Key; Grand Senior President of 
Alpha Sigma Phi; Yale Phi Beta Kappa, 
Pilgrim Societ}-; formerly director Amer- 
ican Peace Society, now Massachusetts 
Peace Society. He is author of many pub- 
lished essa}s, lectures, and volumes, and 
has annotated many masterpieces. He was 
awarded the degree of Ph.D. by the Uni- 
versity of New York in 1873; LL.D. by 
Temple University, anil again by the L^ni- 
versity of North Dakota in 1916. 

CHARLES HOMER SPRAGUE 

Charles Homer Sprague, lawyer, was 
burn in New Haven, Conn., July 21, 1856, 
the son of Homer B. and Antoinette E. 
(Pardee) Sprague. He was educated at the 
Adelphi, Brookl}'n, N. Y., and studied law 
in New York City, afterwards graduating 
LL.B. from the Boston University Law 
School. He has been engaged in the 
practice of law in Boston since 1878, and 
was a memljer of the Newton, Mass., Board 
of Aldermen in 1895-96. IMr. Sprague 
was married August 11, 1877, to Jennie 
Starbuck of Cincinnati, Ohio, the union 
brinsfing: two children, Genevieve B., now 
Mrs. Everett W. Crawford, and Starbuck 
Sprague. He is a member of the Ameri- 
can, Massachusetts and Middlesex Bar As- 
sociations, Mercantile Library Association, 
the American \\'hist Association of which 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



42 S 




CHARLES HOMER SPRACIE 

he was fiirnierly president, an<l the (Jld 
Planters Society. He also hulds iiienilier- 
ship in the Boston Press Cluh, Newton Boat 
and Hunnewell Clubs. His offices are at 15 
Beacon Street. 

JOSEPH P. WALSH 
Joseph P. Walsh, who as senior counsel 
has conducted some important cases in both 
the civil and criminal courts, was bo.rn in 

Boston, October i, 
1875, and was edu- 
cated in the public 
schools, Boston 
Collet^e and Har- 
vard Law School, 
obtainins^ his de- 
t;ree from the latter 
in 1900, being ad- 
mitted to the Piar 
the same }-ear. 
While a student at 
die Boston College, 
lie was a class offi- 
cer and captain of 
the football team, 

JOSEPH P. WALSH =^"'1 ^^i" T C t a i U S 




membership in the various college and 
dramatic societies. Mr. Walsh practices 
alone at 43 Tremont Street and is distinc- 
tivelv a trial lawyer, handling many personal 
injurv cases. He is a member of the Har- 
vard Club, the Boston Athletic Association 
and the Knights of Columbus. He is a col- 
lector of old prints, etchings and rare en- 
gravings, and has a large library that con- 
tains nianv lirst editiuns of choice Ijooks. 



Boston's Chamber of Commerce has 
grown into one of the greatest and most 
active cnininercial bodies in America and 
it has pla>ed a leading part in advancing 
the interest of trade and commerce in the 
city. 

NATHAN HEARD 
Nathan Heard, senior member of the 
prominent jiatent law firm of Heard, Smith 
& Teiinant, furmerly Crosliy & Gregory, 

graduated in 1893 

at Worcester PoU- 

technic Institute. 

Holds degrees of 

B.S., LL.B., LL.M. 

and M.P.L. He is 

a member of the 

liar of the Massa- 
chusetts and United 

States Supreme 

Courts and has been 

for many years in 

active i>ractice ii 

the Federal Courts, 

particularly in pat- 
ent and trade mark 

cases, u]Kin winch 

he is a recognized 




NAIllAN HIIAKU 



authority. jMember of 
Exchange and lioston City Clubs, Cosmos 
C'lub of Washington, Tuesday, Eight 
O'clock and Civic Clubs of Newton, Boston 
Chamber of Commerce, Appalachian Moun- 
tain Club. American and Boston Bar Asso- 
ciations, .\lderman of Newton 1910-1912. 
^Married Florence W ilbelinina Ruggles of 
Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has four chil- 
dren. Office, Old South BuiUling. 




LYON WEYBURN 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



427 



LYON WEYBURN 

Lyon Weyburn, lawyer, born October lo, 
1882, son of S. Fletcher and Flora (Lyon) 
Weyburn; descendant of W'eybournes, bar- 
onets, of Kent Ctmnty, England, and of 
Boston 1648, large propert)' owners; mater- 
nal forbears early residents of Boston 
(grandfather of Revolutionary ancestor 
buried in old Roxi^ury Cenieter\). Mr. 
Weyburn married Miss Ruth Anthony of 
Boston, daughter of the late S. Reed An- 
thony, of Tucker, Anthony & Co., bankers. 

Mr. Weyburn received his A.B. from 
Yale in 1905 and his LL.B. from Harvard 
Law School in 1908. He was admitted to 
the Massachusetts Bar in 1907, and began 
practice in the offices of the late ex-Governor 
Jdhn D. Long and Alfred Hemenwaw He 
is director and president of the American 
Core-Twine Company, cordage manufactur- 
ers, and is counsel and director in a number 
of corporations ; was Legislative Counsel 
for the Boston Charter Association in 
1912 and in 1913; counsel for the Boston 
Chamber of Commerce on fire hazard be- 
fore the Boston City Council ; counsel in 
charge of the New England Milk Inves- 
tigation; author of "The Importance of 
the Dairy Industry to the Citizenship of 
New England"; speaker on the 'subject 
at the Twentieth Century Club of Bos- 
ton and mass meetings in New England ; 
speaker on Eire Prevention at mass meeting 
in Faneuil Hall, presided over by Governor 
Walsh on the anniversary of the Great 
Bosttjn Fire; former member of executive 
committee Citizens' Municipal League, com- 
mittees of Good Government Association 
and committees of Boston Chamber of 
Commerce; official delegate American Eu- 
rfipean tour, 191 1 ; member organizing com- 
mittee International Congress of Chambers 
of Commerce, Boston, 1912; official dele- 
gate International Congress of Chambers of 
Commerce, Paris, France, June, 1914. 

Mr. Weyburn is a member of the Ameri- 
can Bar Association, Boston liar Associa- 
tion, Boston City Club, Boston Harvard, 
New York Yale, Boston Yale, .Xlgonciuin, 
Eastern Yacht, and Norfolk Hunt Clubs. 



His Boston home address is 113 Cimimon- 
wealth Avenue. His law offices are at 53 
State Street. 

WILLIAM E. McKEE 

William E. McKee, who in addition to 
his legal practice, is interested in several in- 
dustrial corporations, was born in I'iqua, 
Ohio, and received his prcparatc^ry educa- 




WILLIAM E. McKEE 



tion in the High School at Scranton, Pa. 
A few years later he came to this city and 
entered the Boston LTniversity Law School. 
He graduated ctoii laudc in 1909, and was 
admitted to the bar the same year. He be- 
gan practice in the law offices of Melvin O. 
Adams and Henry Y. Cunningham, and was 
subsequently connected with the office of 
Harvey N. Shepard. Since 19 13, he has 
had his own office, in conjunction with Lyon 
Weyburn, in the Exchange Building, 53 
State Street. During his student days he 
was elected secretar\- of his class at the Bos- 
ton L"niversit\' Law School; in 1910 he 
received the degree of LL.M., and was in- 
structor at the same institution during 1910- 
1912. He was president of Ward 10 Good 



428 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Government Association in 19 13. He is a 
RejuibHcan in politics, is a Mason, hailing 
from Aberdour Lodge of Boston, and holds 
membership in the Chamber of Commerce, 
the Boston Credit Men's Association and 
the Gamma Eta Gamma fraternity. He 
resides on Centre Street, Newton, Mass. 




From the lawyers of Boston have been 
drawn Presidents of the United States, 
Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors, Mem- 
bers of the Cabinet, Justices of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States and mem- 
bers of many important commissions. 

IRVIN JilcDOWELL GARFIELD 

Irvin McDowell Garfield, son of Hon. 
James A. Garfield, twentieth President of 
the United States, was born in Hiram, Ohio, 

August 3, 1870, 
and was educated 
at St. Paul's 
School, Concord, 
N. H., Williams 
College, A.B., '93, 
and the Harvard 
i Law School, LL.B., 
'96. He was ad- 
mitted to the Bar 
in 1896 and en- 
tered the offices of 
Proctor & Warren, 
l)ccoming a partner 
in 1901, since 
which time the firm 
has by successive 
changes become Warren, Garfield, White- 
sides & Lamson, specializing in corporation 
work, particularly street railways. Mr. 
Garfield is vice-president and director of the 
Guantanamo & Western R. R. Co., director 
of the ^\'innisimmet R. R. Co., and of Bos- 
ton and Chelsea R. R. Co. He is treasurer 
of the Suiinyside Day Nurery and was ap- 
pointed b}' Governor Draper a memljer of 
the corporation and trustee of the Peter 
Bent Brigham Hospital from 1909 o 1915 
and was reappointed by Governor A\'alsh 
from 1915-1921. His offices are at 30 
State Street. 



IRVIN M. GARFIELD 



HON. WILLIAM F. WHARTON 
Hon. William Fisher Wharton, who was 
Assistant Secretary of State, of the United 
States, under the late Hon. James G. Blaine, 
during the Harrison administration, was 
born in Jamaica Plain, Mass., June 28, 1847. 
He also studied law in the oftice of John 
Codman Ropes and John C. Gray, was 
graduated from Harvard College in 1870, 
and from the Harvard Law School in 1873, 
and, after a two j^ears' tour of Europe, took 
up the practice of law in Boston. He was 
a member of the Common Council from 
1880 to 1884, and a representative to the 
Massachusetts Legislature from 1885 until 
1888. In 1889, he was appointed by Presi- 
dent Harrison, Assistant Secretary of State, 
of the United States, serving from 1889 
until 1893. Mr. Wharton is one of the 
most successful lawyers at the Suffolk 
County Bar. At college he won honors in 
Greek and Latin and in ancient history. He 
has been a frequent contributor to legal lit- 
erature, and edited and annotated the last 
edition of "Story on Partnership." He is 
a member of the Middlesex, Somerset and 
City Club corporations. Mr. Wharton was 
married October 31, 1877, to Fanny, 
daughter of William Dudley and Caroline 
(Silsbee) Pickman of Boston. By this 
union there was one son, William P. Whar- 
ton. His second marriage, contracted some 
years after his first wife's death, was to 
Susan Carberry Lay, on February 10, 189 1, 
the children being Philip, and Constance 
\\'hartun, now Mrs. Henry St. John Smith 
of Portland. Mr. \\'hart()n's offices are at 
50 State Street. 




THE FAMOUS ADAMS HOUSE IN QUINCY 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON" 



429 



HON. GEORGE HOLDEN TINKHAM 

George Holden Tinkham, attcinu-y, wlm 
has been for many years active in city, 
state and national politics, was born in Bos- 




HOX. GEORGE H. IINKIIAM 



ton, Octolier 29, 1870. He was educated 
at the Channcy Hall and Hopkinson schools 
and was graduated from Harvard College 
in 1894, and attended the Harvard Law 
School. He was admitted to the IMassachu- 
setts Bar in 1899 and has practiced his pro- 
fession alone since that time, with offices 
in Barristers Hall. Mr. Tinkham, besides 
the active practice of law and the manage- 
ment of several large estates, of which he 
is trustee, has also been very active in poli- 
tics. He was a member of the Bostoit Com- 
mon Council in 1897 and 1898, the Boston 
Board of Aldermen in 1900, in 1901 and in 
1902, and in 19 10 he was elected to the 
Massachusetts State Senate, and served in 
that body for three terms. While a mem- 
ber of the legislature he was identified with 
some of the most important and atlvanced 
legislation during the term of his service. 
He is the author of the second part of Sec- 
tion 22 of the National Federal Reserve 



Act, forl)iddiiig directors, officers and em- 
])loyees of national Ijanks from profiting 
through transactions made by their banks; 
of the ^lassachusetts statute for the preven- 
tion of industrial accidents and occupational 
diseases ; of the system of the State Com- 
mission Control of "small loan" makers; 
of the amendment to the Massachusetts Con- 
stitution giving authority to the legislature 
to submit a law by referendum to the peo- 
])le of the entire state; of the ^lassachusetts 
Commission on Economy and Efficiency; 
of the present twenty-five-year "subway" 
leases in the City of Boston, and introduced 
into ^Massachusetts the s}-stem of licensing 
and inspection of farms to insure a pure 
milk sujji)ly. Air. Tinkham's years of ex- 
])erience in legislation and his legal training 
led to his selection as a representative of 
the 64th Congress from the iith Alassa- 
chusetts district on November 3rd, 1914. 
Air. Tinkham is a member of the Society of 
Mayflower Descendants and many of Bos- 
ton's clubs and fraternal organizations. He 
is president of the \Vashington Home and 
director of the Federal Trust Company. 

JAMES W. SPRING 

Tames \\'. S])ring, memlier of the Suffolk 
Count v Bar, was burn in Boston, Decem- 
lier 15, 1876. He was educated in the 
pulilic schools and deciding upon a legal 
career, entered the Harvard Law School. 
He graduated in the Class of '97 with the 
LL.B. degree, and after admission to the 
Bar, became connected with the legal firm 
of Long & Hemenway, of which Hon. John 
D. Long, then Secretary of the Navy, was 
senior mcmlier. Mr. Spring afterwards 
])racticed his profession alone and now has 
offices in the Treniout Building. His legal 
work is of a general character and he has 
appeared in man_\- important cases. Mr. 
Spring is a Republican in ]>olitics but has 
never sought or held ])ublic office. He is 
a member of the L'nion Club, Harvard Club 
of Boston, Harvard Club of New York, Ab- 
stract Club and the New England Historic 
Genealogical Society. He resides at New- 
ton Centre. 



430 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



HON. JAMES w. McDonald 

Hon. James W. McDonald, who is promi- 
nent in Boston's legal circles and in the 
social and political life of Marlboro, where 




HON. JAMES VV. McDONALD 

he resides, was horn in that city May 15, 
1853, the son of ]\Iichael and Jane McDon- 
ald. After graduating from the High 
School he pursued his education under pri- 
vate tuition and then entered upon the 
study of law, and, passing the necessary 
examinations successfully, was admitted to 
the Middlesex Bar. He began the practice 
of his profession at once in his native town 
and was chosen Town Counsel of Marlboro, 
and upon the incorporation of the city was 
appointed City Solicitor, in which office he 
served continuously for twenty-four years. 
He was also a member of the School Com- 
nn'ttee for twelve years. He was elected to 
the Massachusetts House of Representa- 
tives in 1880, and served on the committees 
on liquor laws and constitutional amend- 
ments. He was a member of the State 
Senate in 1891, from the Fourth Middlesex 
District, and was chairman of the commit- 



tee on manufactures which reported the 
original municipal lighting act. He was also 
a member of the committees on constitu- 
tional amendments, probate and insolvency, 
the special committee on congressional re- 
districting, and the special committee which 
sat during the recess on the forming of a 
general city charter and which reported a 
bill adopted by the Legislature of 1892. 
L'pon his reelection to the Senate in 1892, 
Mr. McDonald served as a member of the 
committees on judiciary and as chairman 
of the committee on constitutional amend- 
ments and on the special recess committee 
on the revision of the judicial system of the 
State. After the expiration of the legisla- 
tive session in 1892, Mr. McDonald was 
appointed chairman of the Board of Gas 
and Electric Light Commissioners; after 
serving two years on this Board he resigned 
to resume the practice of law, and was the 
Democratic candidate for Secretary of the 
Commonwealth on the ticket of 1893. In 
1896 Mr. McDonald was appointed Justice 
of the Police Court of Marlboro, over 
which he still presides. He has also held the 
office of Trustee of the Massachusetts Train- 
ing Schools since 1905. 

Mr. ^McDonald's offices are in the Sears 
Building and he still makes his home in 
Marlboro, where he has resided since 
his birth. An important part of Mr. Mc- 
Donald's law practice has been in cimnection 
with municipal and public service corpora- 
tion matters. 

WILLL-VIM HENRY BROWN 

William H. Brown, attorney, of 30 State 
Street, was born at Ashland, Ky., October 
24, 1859, the son of Daniel and Anna Maria 
(Abbott) Brown. 

He was educated at the Bridgewater Nor- 
mal School (four years) and afterwards 
entered the Boston University Law School, 
from which he graduated (ciiiii laudc) in 
1886. He was admitted to the Bar the same 
year and began practice at once at 85 Devon- 
shire Street, Boston. 



THE ROOK OF BOSTON 



431 



HON. JOHN JOSEPH HIGGINS 

The life story of John J. Higgins slioukl 
l)e an inspiration for every struggling boy 
in the country. Briefly told, it illustrates 




HON. JOHN ]. HIGGINS 

how courage and determination will over- 
come all obstacles. He was born in the 
North End of Boston, May 17, 1865, and at 
the age of seven was working as a breaker 
])oy in a Penns\lyania coal mine. Two 
j-ears later he was emplo_\-ed in Boston and, 
losing his parents when he was ten )ears 
old, was sent to work on a farm in Madljury, 
New Hampshire, for his board and clothes, 
being allowed to attend the district school 
during the winter term. In the fall of 1S84, 
he went to Exeter and worked his way 
through Phillips Academy, graduating in 
1887. The following fall he entered Har- 
vard Law School, and graduated in 1890 
with the degree of LL.B. He began the 
practice of law at once in Boston and was 
associated with the late Richard Stone from 
1892 until 1906. In 1892, Mr. Higgins 
moved to Somerville, where he served three 
years as alderman, the last year as presitlent 
of that body and ex-officio member of the 



School C<ininiitlce. He was a member of 
the Plouse of Representatives in 1906 and 
1907, serving on the Judiciary Committee. 
He was also on the Special Recess Com- 
mittee on Insurance and chairman of the 
Cduimittee on Constitutional Amendments. 
\\'hile in the Legislature he drew the Anti- 
I'.ucket Shop ]!ill and led the fight for its 
enactment. He also led the fight on the 
Anti-Shoe Machinery Bill, the Shyster Law- 
yer Bill, the Warehouse Receipts Bill, the 
B.ills of Sale Act, and the fight against the 
railroad merger. 

Mr. Higgins was twice elected district 
attorney of Middlesex County, holding the 
office from 1908 until 1914. 

While a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, Mr. Higgins' cijurse was almost 
universally connnended. The Lynn Item 
said of him : "In the legislature he was a 
magnetic Republican floor leader in the 
house," while Practical Politics thus eulo- 
gized him: "He has a public record to his 
credit that none of his rivals can boast of. 
He is known as one of the ablest lawyers in 
the Commonwealth, and he made an excep- 
tional record as the prt.isecuting ofticer of 
Aliddlesex County, which the people of the 
State have surel\' not forgotten. He is able, 
aggressive and popular." The Soincn'ille 
Journal said : "In a little more than one 
year of legislative service, he has won a high 
reputation for clear thinking, decisive ac- 
tion, forceful arguments and boundless 
courage. . . . Those who know him best 
are the most ardent believers in his char- 
acter, ability and political tutiu-e." The 
Boston Journal pronounced him, "One of 
our ablest and straightest legislators," and 
the Boston Transcript said, "Higgins is uni- 
versally popular with Republicans and Dem- 
ocrats alike. Not only is he universally 
liked, but he is highly esteemed for his 
honesty and ability." His course as pros- 
ecutor led the ll'altliaiii Free Press Trib- 
une to editorially declare, "There has 
not been a district attorney of Middlesex 
County within the memory of living men, 
and possibly not in the history of the 
county, who has had so many important 



432 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



cases in the same time as Mr. Higgins has. 
He has conducted them in a manner which 
lias won him the encomiums of his fellow 
members of the Bar and of the police of- 
ficials with whom he has Ijeen associated." 
The Boston Journal, commenting on this 
same service, said, "While he has been in 
office, Mr. Higgins has shown remarkable 
ability both as a criminal investigator and 
trial law)'er. ... As a trial lawyer. District 
Attorney Higgins showed great resource. 
Astute and deliberate, his manner of trying 
cases has attracted widespread attention, 
and has been marked by eminent fairness, 
which has stood above all else. He has 
taken rank with the foremost legal fighters 
of the day, and during his term of office has 
successfully coped with the greatest crimi- 
nal attorneys of the State. While in the 
Legislature he was considered as one of the 
most powerful men on the floor, and few 
measures he advocated failed to be passed." 
Mr. Higgins is a member of the Massa- 
chusetts Cotisistor)-, 32nd degree, of the 
Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and 
of the Somerville Lodge of Elks. He was 
married in Somerville, June 30, IQ07, to 
M. Isabel Goldthwait, and has one son, 
Robert P. Higgins. 

DONALD MACKAY HILL 

Donald M. Hill, member of the legal firm 
of Blodgett, Jones, Burnham & Bingham, 
was born in Brookline, November i, 1877, 
the son of ^\'illiam H. and Sarah Ellen 
(May) Hill. He attended the Berkeley 
School and Harvard College, graduating 
from the latter in 189S, after which he en- 
tered the Harvard Law School. He re- 
ceived the LL.B. degree in 1901 and was 
admitted to the Bar the same year. ]\Ir. 
Hill began his legal career with Carver & 
Blodgett, afterwards becoming a member 
of the firm of Bingham, Smith & Hill, and 
eventually forming his present connection, 
with offices at 60 Federal Street, the firm 
being engaged in general practice and mak- 
ing a specialty of marine and corporation 
law. Mr. Hill comes of old New England 



stock, his ancestors settling at Kittery. 
Maine, in 1645. He is president of the 
Renfrew & Hansohoe Manufacturing Co. 
and a director in a number of corporations. 
He is a member of the Exchange Club, the 
Harvard Club of Boston, the Brae Burn 
Country Club, and the Bostonian Society. 
Air. Hill was married June 11, 1902, to 
Annie N. Turner, of Brookline, and has 
two sons, Donald Mackay, Jr., and Mal- 
colm Turner Hill. His residence is in 
Waban. 



Bostcn leads the nation in a nunil-'cr of 
great industries, of which wool, woolen 
goods, textiles, fish and leather are a few. 

HON. C. AUGUSTUS NORWOOD 

Hon. C. Augustus Norwood was born 
in Hamilton. Mass., August 21, 1880, the 
son of Caleb J. and Alartha A. (Dane) Nor- 
wood. He gradu- 
ated from Harvard I 
A.B. and LL.B., | 
and was admitted 
to the Massachu- 
setts Bar in 1905.1 
and has since prac- 
ticed in Boston. He| 
held many local of- 
fices in Hamilton | 
and was a Repul;- 
lican member of the | 
House of Repre- 
sentatives during 
191 1 and 1912 ses- 
sions and of the 
Senate durino' ^°^' *■• Augustus NORWOOD 

1913, 19 14 and 191 5 sessions, where, as 
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee in 

1915, he was Floor Leader. He is vice- 
president of the National Bank, Ipswich,, 
director Co-operative Bank, Ipswich, and 
Massachusetts Trust Co., Boston. He is a 
Commandery Mason and member of the 
American Bar Association and several 
clubs and societies. He was married March,. 

1916, to Elisabeth F. Gragg, of Brookline,. 
where thev now reside. 




tup: rook of bostox 



4,^,^ 



ROBERT P. CLAPP 

Robert P. Clapp, of Johnson, Clapp & 
Underwood, one of the well-known lej^al 
firms of the citv, was born in Montague, 




ROBERT P. CLAPI' 



Mass., October 21, 1833, a direct descendant 
in the ninth generation of Captain Roger 
Clapp, who headed the company that settled 
Dorchester in 1630. He graduated from 
Harvard College in 1879, '''""^l from the 
Harvard Law School in 1882. W'hile a 
student he acted as a reporter on the Boston 
Daily Adzrrtiscr. and also took up stenog- 
raphv, in which he liecame very proficient. 
Mr. Clapp was admitted to the Suffolk Bar 
in 1883, while in the lioston rjffice of Sena- 
tor Bainbridge Wadleigh of New Hamp- 
shire. For seven years following 1887, 
nearly all of his time was devoted to the 
Thompson-Houston Electric Co. and the 
General Electric (^o., of whose commercial 
law departments he had general charge. He 
returned to general practice in 1894, at that 
time organizing with Benjamin N. Johnson 
and \\\ Orison Underwood, the present 
firm. Mr. Clapp is a trustee of the Williston 
Seminarv and a director of several success- 



ful business corporations. Fie was treas- 
urer of the Middlesex Bar Association for 
ten years after its organization in 1899,. 
subsequently serving as vice-president and 
being elected president in 1914. He resides- 
in Lexington, where he has held various 
local elective offices. He is a member of the 
St. Botolph, L'nion and Flarvard Clubs. 
Mr. Cla])p was married October 28, 1886, to 
Mary Lizzie, daughter of Ex-Mayor 
Charles H. Saunders of Cambridge, and 
they have two children, Lilian S., who grad- 
uated from Smith College in the class of 
1914. and Roger S. Clapp, who graduated 
from Phillips (Exeter) Academy in 1915^ 
and is uiiw a freshman at Harvard. 

OSCAR STORER 

( )scar Sturer of the legal firm of Stebbins, 
Storer & Burbank was l)()rn at MorrilL 
Me.. September 14, 1867. After a pre- 
liminary education _ 
in liucksport. Me., 
be entered Boston 
University, gradu- 
ating from the aca- 
demic department 
in 1892, and the 
law department, 
magna cum laude. 
in 1895. He was 
admitted to the Bar 
the preceding year, 
and has since been 
engaged in general 
])ractice, most of 
which is of a ci\il 
character. He has °"''''* ^™''" 
been an instructor at the Boston University 
Law School, in some capacit\', ever since 
graduation, having taught at various times 
sales, torts and constitutional law. Mr. 
Storer is a member of the Masonic order 
and was nominated for the thirty-third de- 
gree at the last conclave held in P>oston. 
Fie also holds membership in the Odd I"el- 
lows. Knights of Pythias and the Delta Tail 
Delta and the Phi Delta I'hi l-'raternities. 




434 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ARTHUR ELMER DENISON 

(deceased) 

Arthur E. Denison, who died May i8, 
19 lo, was one of Boston's best known law- 
yers and one of Camljridge's most highly 




ARTHUR E. DENISON (dECEASEd) 

respected citizens. He was born in Burke, 
Vermont, December 5, 1847, "I'^d was edu- 
cated at the Westl^rooke Seminary and Tufts 
College. He graduated from the latter with 
the B.A. degree in 1869 and had the M.A. 
degree conferred upon him in 1907. While 
.a student at Westbrooke he enlisted in the 
U. S. Army, April 8, 1864, and after three 
months service in Kittery, Maine, was mus- 
tered out with the rank of sergeant. He 
resumed his studies in the fall of 1865 and 
.after graduation he founded and became the 
first cashier of the Norway (Vt.) National 
Bank. Resigning this position he went to 
Portland, Me., and studied law in the office 
of Hon. Wirt Virgin, later an Associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine. 
After admission to the Maine Bar he came 
to Boston and continued practice here until 
the time of his death. Mr. Denison came 
•of old New England stock and was the son 



of Lucius and Adelaide (Hobart) Denison. 
He married Ida E., daughter of Dr. Ward 
E. Wright of Cambridge, the union bring- 
ing two children, a daughter who died, and 
Arthur W. Denison, who was associated 
with his father in legal work. Mr. Denison 
was a member of the Masonic Fraternity, 
University Club, Colonial Clulj, a trustee of 
Tufts College and past president of the 
Universalist Club of Boston. 

Arthur W. Denison, son of Arthur E. and 
Ida (Wright) Denison, was born in Cam- 
l)ridge, Mass., December 3, 1878. He 
graduated from Harvard in 1903 and the 
}ear following entered the law offices of 
Denison, Drew & Clarke, of which his 
father was senior member. Mr. Denison 
now practices alone at 68 Devonshire Street. 
He is a member of the Corinthian Yacht, 
Economic, Harvard and University Clubs, 
and of the Pi Eta Societv. 



As early as 1624 a cargo of fish was 
shipjied liy the Puritans from Boston to 
England. 

BOYD B. JONES 

Boyd B. Jones, lawyer, was born in 
Georgetown, Mass., October 13, 1856. He 
graduated A.B. from the New London Lit- 
erary and Scientific Institute in 1874 and the 
Boston University Law School conferred 
the LL.B. degree upon him in 1877. He be- 
gan practice in Haverhill, Mass., where he 
resides, in 1877, and in Boston in 1897. 

He was assistant district attorney of 
Essex County for one year, and City 
Solicitor of Haverhill for the same period. 

He served as a member of the Massachu- 
setts Ballot Law Commission for three 
years, and in 1897 President McKinley 
appointed him United States Attorney for 
the District of Massachusetts. 

Mr. Jones is a member of the law firm of 
Hurlburt, Jones & Cabot, with offices at 
53 State Street. 



TIIR BOOK OF BOSTON 



4,vS 




UlLLIAM HEXKI IKKSU 

LAWYER 

244 WASHINGTON STREET 



HON. EDWARD LAWRENCE LOGAN 

Hon. Edward L. Logan, Justice of the 
Municipal Court, South Boston District, was 
1m. ni in Boston, January 20, 1875, the son 

of Lawrence J. and 
C a t li e r i n e M. 
( O'Connor ) Logan. 
After thorougli 
preparati< )n at tlie 
B (I s 1 11 n L a t i n 
Sclidol, he gradu- 
ated A.B. from 
Harvard U^niversity 
in 1898 and from 
tlie Harvard Law 
School witli the 
LL.B. degree, in 
1901, afterwards 
taking a post-grad- 
uate course. He has 
HON. EDWARD L. LOGAN i,^.^,„ j,., practice iu 

Boston since liis a<hnissii>n to the I'.ar in 
T901 and in addition has l)een vcr)- active 
in political and military circles. Judge 
Logan was Sergeant-Ma j or of the 9lh Regi- 




ment L'. S. A'lilunteers iu the Sj^anish- 
American War. He was afterwards Ser- 
geant-Majcjr of the 9th Regiment, M. V. ]\L, 
and being elected Second Lieutenant of 
Companv A, of that regiment, rose to the 
ciimmand of the cnni])an\' and then l)ecame 
Maiiir and finally Cdlonel of the regiment, 
which he c(.immanded during the Mexican 
troubles in 19 16. He was aide-de-camp 
on the staff of Governor Draper, with the 
rank of Captain in 1909-1 9 10, and has been 
a member of the State Armory Commission. 
Colonel Logan was a member of Boston 
Common Council in 1899- 1900, of the 
Massachusetts House of Representatives in 
1901-1902 and of the Senate in 1906. He 
was appointed Special Justice of the IMunic- 
ipal Court, South Boston District in 1907, 
and has filled the jiosition since that time. 
He is a director of the Old South Trust 
Co., the South Boston Savings Bank, the 
Hibernia Savings Bank, and hokls member- 
ship in the Harvard, L^niversity and City 
Clubs. His offices are in Barristers Hall. 




WhI.U A. ROLLINS 

LAWYER 

305 SHAW.MLH DANK lUTI.DINi; 




FRED L. NORTON 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



43/ 



FRED L. NORTON 

Fred L. Norton, who is one of the best 
known and most successful practitioners at 
the Suffolk bar, was born in W'estlield, 
JMass., November 24, 1865, the son of Lewis 
R. and Harriet N. (Fletcher) Norton. His 
preparator}' education was received in the 
public and high schools of Westfield, after 
which he entered Amherst College. Grad- 
uating in 1886, he was selected as a member 
of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and as a 
commencement speaker. He took a post- 
graduate course of one year at Johns Hop- 
kins University and then studied law at the 
Boston University Law School, from which 
he graduated with the LL.B. degree. He 
was admitted to the liar in 1889, and at once 
entered the office of William B. French in 
lioston, at the same time beginning the prac- 
tice of his profession on his own account. 
Mr. Norton was associated with Hon. Wil- 
liam M. Butler from i8g6 imtil 1907, since 
which time he has practiced alone, with of- 
fices in the Tremont Building. His practice 
is of a general character, and he has con- 
tlucted many civil and criminal cases in the 
various courts of Suffolk and the other 
counties of the Commonwealth. Mr. Norton 
is a Democrat in politics and is a member of 
the Boston City Club, the Twentieth Cen- 
tury Club, the Boston Congregational Club, 
the Appalachian ^Mountain Club and the Chi 
Phi fraternity. He was married, T""e 16, 
1897, to Mary R. Russell, who died July _', 
191 1. He resides in Brookline. 

BENTLEY WTRTH WARREN 

After studying law under Hon. Thomas 
P. Proctor and at the Boston University 
Law School, Bentley W'irth Warren was ad- 
mitted to the Bar and is now senior mcmlier 
of the legal firm of Warren, Garlicld, 
Whitesides & Lamson. He was born in 
Boston, April 20, 1864, was educated at the 
Boston Latin School and at Williams Col- 
lege, from which he graduated A.I'., in 
1885. He ^\■as a meml)er of the IMassachu- 
setts House of Representatives in 1891-92 
and of the Civil Service Commission in 
1903-05. He is president of the Winnisim- 



met R. R., trustee of the Worcester Rail- 
ways and Investment Co., director of 
the East Middlesex Street Railway Co., the 
Boston & Revere Street Railway Co., the 
State Street Trust Co., the Boston & Chelsea 
R. R. Co., and the Boston Morris Plan Co., 
and trustee of the I'righton Five Cent 
Savings Bank, Williams College and Brim- 
mer School (Boston). His clubs are the 
Union, Ll^niversity, Country and Boston 
City, and the L'niversity of New York City. 



The Medical schools of Boston have de- 
veloped that science imtil this city leads the 
c(juntry in the men devoting their lives to 
that pnifession. 

JOSEPH F. WARREN 

Joseph F. \\'arren, senior member of the 
law firm of Warren, Burt & Palmer, was 
born in Foxborough, Mass., October 6, 
1872, the son of 
Henry G. and Eliza 
(Wilber) Warren 
and grandson of 
Judge Ebenezer 
Warren, a brother 
of General Joseph 
Warren, who was 
killed at the battle 
of Bunker Hill. He 
was educated in the] 
Foxborough High 
School, and he af- 
terwards entered 
Boston Universit}- 
Law School, from 
which he graduated '°^^-''" ''• "•■^■^'<'-'' 

cum laude in i8(;() with the LL.B. degree. 
He was admitted to the Bar the same year 
and has been in active practice in Boston 
since. ]\Ir. ^^'arren is a member of the 
Masonic Fraternity, the Boston Chamber of 
Commerce, Appalachian Mountain Club, Bar 
Association of the City of Boston, the Mas- 
sachusetts Bar Association, Boston Univer- 
sity Ahunni Association. He was married 
September 15, 1904, to Maud Battelle 
IVIowry of Walpole, Mass. His offices are 
at 50 Congress Street, Boston. 




438 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



RALPH SYLVESTER BARTLETT 

Ralph Sylvester Bartlett, lawyer, was 
born April 29, 1868, in Eliot, Maine, the 
son of Sylvester and Clementine (Raitt) 




RALPH S. BARTLE'IT 

Bartlett. He gradnated from Berwick 
Academy. South Berwick, Maine, in 1885, 
received the A.B. degree from Dartmouth 
College in 1889, and the A.M. degree from 
the same institution in 1892, The L.L.B. 
degree was conferred upon him by the Bos- 
ton University Law School, from which he 
graduated magna cum laude in 1892. He 
was admitted to the Suffolk bar the same 
year, and to the United States courts in 
1894. He was associated in practice with 
former Governor William E. Russell from 
1892 until the latter's death in 1896; since 
that time he has been engaged in the prac- 
tice of his profession in Boston, with offices 
at 53 State Street. Mr. Bartlett is eighth 
in direct descent from Richard Bartlett, who 
emigrated from Sussex, England, and set- 
tled in Newbury, Mass., in 1635. He is a 
member of the University, Dartmouth, Mid- 
dlesex and Economic Clubs, Sons of the 
American Revolution, New England His- 



toric Genealogical Society, Theta Delta Chi. 
Society, Phi Delta Phi Society, American 
Bar Association, Massachusetts Bar Asso- 
ciation, Bar Association of the City of Bos- 
ton. Mr. Bartlett served in coast defence 
duty during the Spanish-American War in 
1898, with the First Corps Cadets, M .V. M, 
He was an active member of this organiza- 
tion from 1894 until 1903, and now holds 
honorary and veteran meml>ership. He re- 
sides at 139 Beacon Street, Boston. 



Boston was not lightly named "The Hub."' 
Workl tourists today can well appreciate 
why it is entitled to this distinction. 

ROBERT J. BOTTOMLY 

Roljert J. Bottomly, whose law office is 
at 161 Devonshire Street, was born Decem- 
lier 30, 1883, at Worcester, Mass. He was- 
educated at the 
W'orcester Classical 
High School, Am- 
herst College, and 
Boston LTniversity 
Law School, ob- 
ta i n i ng the A.B. 
and A.AL degrees | 
from Amherst, and 
the LL.B. and 
J.B. from Bos- 
ton University. He 
was admitted to the 
Ear in 1909, and 
has since been in 
general practice. 
For several years '*°'''''''' '■ bottomly 
he has been Secretary of the Good Govern- 
ment Association and Secretary of the Bos- 
ton Charter Association. In 191 2 he was 
Executive Secretary of the Fifth Inter- 
national Congress of Chambers of Com- 
merce. Mr. Bottomly is of old New Eng- 
land ancestry. He is a member and one of 
the founders of the Boston City Club, 
a director of the City History Club and of 
Denison House, a member of the National 
Municipal League and the Pan-Americani 
Societv of the L^nited States. 




THE HOOK OF BOSTON 



43>^ 




JAMtS t. MCCON.NELL 



JAMES E. .McOJXXELL 

James E. McConnell of tlie legal firm of 
McConnell & McConnell, Tremont Ijiiild- 
ing, was born in North Ailams, Mass., April 

22, 1866. He grad- 
uated from Holy 
Cross College in 
1886 and from the 
Boston University 
L a \v S c h o o 1 i n 
1888, after which 
he began practice 
in Fitchburg, but 
removed to Boston 
in 1905. Mr. Mc- 
Connell is a Demo- 
crat and was candi- 
date for Lieutenant- 
Governor in 1896 
and for Attorney 
General in 1908, 
also serving as Chairman of the Massachu- 
setts Commission on Pensions in 1914. For 
many years he was Supreme Advocate of 
the Knights of Columl)us, is a member of 
the Executive Committee of the Massachu- 
setts Bar Association and various Chamber 
of Commerce Committees. His clubs are 
the Boston City and Wollaston Golf. 

HENRY \\'ALTON SWIFT 

Henry W. Swift, counsellor at law, whi) 
has for years been prcjininent in municipal, 
state and judicial affairs, was born Decem- 
ber 17, 1849, at New Bedford, Mass. Fie 
was educated at the Friends Academy- of 
New Bedford, rhillijis Exeter Academy, 
Harvard College and the Harvard Law 
School. He was admitted to the Suffolk 
County Bar in June, 1874, and has since 
been active along various lines. He was a 
member of the Boston Common Council in 
1879 ^'""J 1880, a member of the Boston 
School Committee in 1881, a member of the 
Legislature in 1882, was appointed a member 
of the Board of Harbor and Land Commis- 
sioners in 1 89 1 and was chairman of that 
board for about three years. He was ap- 
pointed United States Marshal in 1894 and 



served for about four and one-half years. 
He was for one year lecturer on Sales at the- 
Harvard Law School, during an illness of 
Professor ^^'illiston. He is now Reporter 
of Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court, 
having assumed the duties of that office on 
January i, 190 1. Since that time he has 
l>roduced forty-seven volumes of the Massa- 
chusetts Reports, namely, 177 Mass. to 223 
Mass., inclusive. Mr. Swift is a descendant 
of William Swift, who came here from 
England in 1630, and his maternal ancestry 
includes many men who were prominent in 
Colonial history. He has an office for his 
private practice at 50 State Street, and is a 
memljer of the Somerset and L^nion Clubs. 



The Park system of Boston includes 30 
miles of picturesque river banks, 12 miles 
of delightful .seashore, 79 miles of beautiful 
boulevards and over 50 miles of woodland 
roads. 

JOSEPH W. McCONNELL 

Joseph W. IMcConnell, attorney, of the 
firm of McConnell & McConnell, was Imrn 
in North Adams, Alass., June 17, 1877. Fie 
graduated fro m 
Williams College in 
1898 and from the 
Boston University 
Law Sell ool in 
1901. After ad- 
mission to the Bar | 
he ]) r a c t i c e d in 
Fitchburg, Mass., 
for two years, and 
removed to Bost( m 
April, 1905, form- 
ing his present con- 
nection and engag- 
ing in the general 
practice of his pro- 
fession. Mr. Mc- 
Connell is a Veteran 
Lieutenant of the 9th Infantry, Massachu- 
setts X'olunteer Militia and a memlier of the 
\\'(>(Klland Golf Club. His offices are in the 
Tremont I'.uilding, and he resides at 14 
Cbamblet Street, Dorchester. 




JOSEPH \V. MCCONNELL 

the 1st Corps Cadets, 



440 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




DANIEL J. CALLAGHF.R 



DANIEL J. GALLAGHER 
Daniel J. Gallagher, who since admission 
to the Bar has been active in legal and po- 
litical circles, was born in Newton, Mass., 
August 31, 1873. He was educated in the 

schools of Water- 
town, Boston Col- 
lege and Boston 
LTniversity L a w 
School. He was 
ilass orator at the 
Boston College in 
1892 and winner of 
the prize oifered by 
the Fulton Debat- 
ing Societ}'. He was 
the youngest man 
to receive the A.M. 
degree at the Bos- 
ton College in 1894 
and delivered the 
master's oration. 
Fie was admitted to the Bar in 1895 and has 
appeared successfully in several criminal 
and nuirder cases. He also received the 
largest verdict ever awarded in Norfolk 
County in a suit for personal injury. Mr. 
Gallagher was appointed an assistant to Dis- 
trict Attorney Pelletier, February 28, 19 16. 
He is a member of the Catholic Order of 
Foresters and State Deputy of the Knights 
of Columbus. He was a memlier of the 
Democratic State Central Committee from 
1896 to 1898, and is the organizer of the 
^'B. C. Home Night," the chief annual event 
conducted by the Boston College Alumni 
Association. 



EDMUND H. TALBOT 

Edmund FI. Talljot, attorney at law, of 
35 Congress Street, was admitted to the 
Suffolk Bar in 1888 and has since been en- 
gaged in the general practice of the law, 
with special attention given to mercantile, 
banking and trusts. 

He is a director and counsel of the 
American Glue Company, director of the 



International Trust Company, Potter Drug 
and Chemical Corporation, Robinson 
Brothers & Company, Chester Kent & Com- 
pany, Indexical Soap Co., and trustee of 
several large estates in Boston. 

GEORGE A. SWEETSER 

George A. Sweetser, of the law firm of 
Anderson, Sweetser & Wiles, was born in 
Saugus, Mass., November 2t,. 1872, and 
was educated in the 
puljlic schools of 
Saugus and Mai- 
den, Mass. After 
a short business I 
experience in one | 
of the large Bos- 
ton corporations, he I 
was admitted to the [ 
Bar in 1901, and 
has since been in 
active practice in I 
Boston. Mr. Sweet- 1 
ser has given par- 
ticular attention to 
corporation law and 
to trial work. Mr. 
Sweetser is a director and clerk of the E. T. 
Slattery Company, 154 Tremont Street, 
Boston; a director and treasurer of the 
Edward Bryant Company, 213 Central 
Street, Boston ; and is a director of the 
^\'ellesley Cooperative Bank and the Welles- 
ley Publishing Company, of Wellesley, 
Mass. He resides at Wellesley Hills, Mass., 
and was Chairman of the Board of Select- 
men of the Town of Wellesley from 1907 
to 191 1. He is a member of the American 
Bar Association, the Boston Bar Associa- 
tion, the Norfolk Bar Association, the Bos- 
ton Chamber of Commerce, the Academy of 
Political Science of the City of New York, 
and the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity. He 
is a member of the IMaugus and the Nehoi- 
den and A\'ellesley Clubs, of Wellesley, 
Mass., and of the Boston City Club of Bos- 
ton, Mass. His offices are at 84 State Street, 
Boston. 




GEORGE A. SWEETSER 



UK ROOK OF BOSTON 



441 




HON. WILLIAM B. LAURENCL 



IIOX. WILLIAM 11. L.WVRENCE 

Hon. \\'illiani B. Lawrence, lawyer and 
legislator, was Ixirn in Charlestmvn, Mass., 
X(iveml)er i6, 1856. Lie graduated from 

the I'oston Latin 
Scliiiiil in 1875, 
.\.i'). from Harvard 
in iSjf) and LL.ll. 
fr(ini 1 lar\ard L'ni- 
\iT>it\' Law School 
in iSS_>. He was 
achnitted In the I'.ar 
i the following year 
and has since prac- 
ticed in lioston. 
Mr. Lawrence was 
a meniher of the 
AI a s sac h u s e 1 1 s 
House of Represen- 
tatives in 1891-2 
and of the Senate 
in 1893-4. He is a trustee of the Medfurd 
Savings Bank and has been jiresident of the 
Cajie Cdd Pilgrim Memorial .\ssiiciation 
since 1912. He is a thirt\ -third degree 
MasdU and a memlier of the I'niversity and 
( onimercial LIuIjs. His offices are at 18 
Tremont Street. 

PIERPONT L. STACKPOLE 

Pierpont L. Stackpnle, attnrney. was horn 
in Brookline, February 16, 1875, the son of 
Stephen Henry and Julia ( Faunce) Stack- 
])ole, who were of English and Welsh an- 
•cestry. He attended Colgate .Academy and 
■Colgate L'niversity at Flaniilton, N. Y., and 
then entered Harvard College, graduating 
in 1897. His legal studies were at the Har- 
vard Law School and were completed in 
1900. He was admitted to the Bar the 
same year and immediatelv became associ- 
ated with the legal tirm of J. P.. & H. F.. 
\\'arner. which eventually assumed its pres- 
ent title of Warner, Warner & Stackpole, 
with offices at 84 State Street. Mr. Stack- 
])nle is interested in several corporations, 
and he holds membership in the I'niou, 
'Tennis and Racquet, and other clubs. 



HON. WILLI. \.\1 W. CLARKE 

Hon. William W. Clarke was born in 
(Iroton, Mass., March lu, 1870. He at- 
tended the iniblic schools previous to enter- 




HON. « U.LLVM W. CLAKKK 



ing Harvanl College and afterwards the 
Harvard Law School for two years. Mr. 
Clarke was admitted to the Bar in 1895. 
He has no associates and his practice was 
of a general character until about three years 
ago, when he took up corporation work and 
has since .specialized in that line of his pro- 
fession. In addition to his legal work Mr. 
Clarke is interested in several corporations. 
He is a director of the Bay State Pumj) 
Company, president of the Columbia Mutual 
F'ire Assurance Com])any of Boston and 
president of the American Oil Company of 
New England. He is interested in the de- 
velopment of oil fields at Jamestown, R. L, 
where wells are being drilled, a deposit 
of heavv paraffine oil having been discov- 
ered in that locality. In politics he is a 
Democrat and was a member of the Massa- 
chusetts House of Representatives in 1904 
and of the State Senate in 1907. being a 
member of the E.xamining Committee of 



442 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



the Boston Public Library \\hile in the 
Senate. He was also a member of the 
special committee appointed by the House 
and Senate to consider relations between 
employers and employees. He was mar- 
ried February 7, 1907, to Alice Agnew 
Doyle. His offices are at 75 State Street. 

HON. CHARLES J. BROWN 

Hon. Charles J. Brown was l)(irn in Bos- 
ton June 29, 1874, and was educated at the 
pul)lic schi;ols and the Young ]\Ien's Chris- 

t i a n Association. 
Lie studied law in 
the office of Hon. 
Jdhn L. Bates and 
was admitted to the 
Bar in 1900. He 
has been in active 
practice since, with 
the exception of 
the }ears 1903-4, 
when he was sec- 
retar\- to < loverm ir 
Jjates. In 19 10 he 
was appointed to 
the East Boston 
District Court and 
is now senior jus- 
tice. He is a Re]niblican in politics, a mem- 
ber of the Knights of Columbus, the M. C. 
O. of F. and is a trustee of the Sumner Sav- 
ings Bank. His offices are in the Tremont 
Building and he resides in W'inthrop. 

J. ALFRED ANDERSON 

The obstacles that a foreign-born citizen 
of the United States encounters are man}-, 
and success along any line of endeavor is 
worthy of record — hence the story of J. 
Alfred Anderson's career. He was born in 
Uleaborg, Finland, December 16, 1880, and 
was educated in the public schools of Viborg, 
Finland, and at the Berkeley Preparatory 
School, after coming to the United States 
in 1895. While engaged in mercantile pur- 
suits, six years of which were spent as Land- 
ing Passenger Agent of the Cunard Steam- 
ship Co., he was, in 1907, admitted to the 



Boston LTniversity Law School. He also 
studied in the V. M. C. A. Law School. He 
began to practice law in Boston in Febru- 
ary, 1911, and in June of the same year 




HON. CHARLES J. BROWN 




J. ALFRED ANDERSON 

received the LL.B. degree from the law 
school. The following year he organized 
the legal firm of Anderson, Carney & Peter- 
son, with offices at 209 Washington Street, 
and has been very successful, specializing in 
Federal Court practice and being counsel in 
important cases in the New England States, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. This 
achievement will seem more remarkable 
when it is known that Mr. Anderson could 
not speak a word of English a score of years 
ago. His adaptabilit)' is such, however, 
that during his connection with the Cunard 
Company, he overcame all linguistic difficul- 
ties and conducted business for that line in 
at least ten different languages. He attained 
legal prominence soon after admission to 
the Ijar by his activity in jjrosecuting acci- 
tlent cases. 

^Ir. Anderson was one of the organizers 
of the Eastern Finnish Temperance League, 
which now has a large meml:)ership. He 
also organized a large number of Finnish 
workingmen's associations, and is a leader 
in all the Finm'sh activities in the Eastern 
States. 



TlIK BOOK OF BOSTON 



443 



HON. RICHARD S. TI^ELING 

Hon. Richard S. Teeliiii;', attnnicy-at-law, 
was Ixirn in Charlestown, l)ecenil)er 2(), 
1878, and has always resided in tliat chs- 




IIOX. RICH.\RD S. TEELING 

trict. He was educated in the Bunker Hill 
Oramniar School, Boston Latin School 
and linstcm College, from which he was 
graduated in 189c) with the degree of A.B. 
He then attended the Boston University Law 
School from which he received the degrees 
of B.L. and J.M., upon his graduation in 
1904. He at once began the practice of 
law after his admission to the ISar, and al- 
though (jue of the vounger memliers of the 
profession, Mr. Teeling has proven himself 
well alile to liandle cases that usually <lemand 
lunger experience. He has an extensive 
clientele which has grown through his as- 
siduity and integrit}'. 

In politics Mr. Teeling has alwa\s been 
a Democrat. He represented the Fourth 
Suffolk District in the Massachusetts House 
<lin'iiig 1 !):)() and 1907, and was a])])iiinted 
a nieml)er of the Taxation ('(juimission of 
1907. Mr. Teeling was elected lu the ^lassa- 
chusetts Senate for i<;o<j and 1910, where 



he served as a Memlier uf Rules and the 
Juiliciar\-. His career in the Massachusetts 
Legislature was an active and honorable one, 
and the public experience which he obtained 
therein has done much to enhance his abil- 
ity to successfully carry through much im- 
portant litigation. 

Mr. Teeling is vice-president and direct(jr 
of the Charlestown Trust Company. He is 
a member of the (.■hamlier of Commerce, 
Boston Bar Association, City Club, Knights 
of Columbus, Massachusetts Catholic Order 
of F^oresters, Catholic .\lumni Society, Bos- 
ton Athletic Association, and the lielmont 
Springs Country Club. 

Mr. Teeling's offices are in the Merchants 
Bank I'.uilding, 30 State Street. 



The old r.oston merchant risked a fortune 
in everv shipload and usually made one out 
of it. 

JAMES M. GRAHAM 

Tames M. Graham, secretary and organ- 
izer of the Forest Hills Cooperative Bank, 
and member of the legal firm of McDonald 
& Graham, was 
born in B o s t o n 
Mav 26, 1884, and 
was educated at the 
Boston Grammar 
and Boston Latin 
schools. He studied 
law in the office of 
John ¥. McDon- 
ald, his present as- 
sociate, and was 
admitted to the 
Massachusetts Bar 
February 23, 1896, 
and to the L^nited 
States Court the 
following year. ^Ir. 
( "iraham is engaged iirincipally in trial work 
and he has been very successful. He is a 
mem]>er of the Knights of Columbus, Bos- 
ton City Club, the Catholic L'nion and the 
Savin blill ^'acht Club. His offices are in 
the Treniciut iUiilding. 




JAMES M. GRAHAM 



444 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



FRANCIS M. CARROLL 

Francis M. Carroll, who, in addition to his 
large legal practice, has been active in many 
civic Ijcttcrment movements, was Ijorn at 




FRANCIS M. CARROLL 

Ware, Mass., March u, 1875. He was 
educated at the Boston University, olitain- 
ing the A.B. degree in 1897 and A.M. in 
1899. He was admitted to the bar in 1903, 
and has since been actively engaged in prac- 
tice, being now a mem1)er of the tirm of 
Carroll, Flye & Nunn, with offices in the 
Newport Building, 68 Devonshire Street. 
Previous to taking up active practice, ]\Ir. 
Carroll taught school from 1897 until 1902 
and was principal of the Ware High School. 
He was trustee of the Medfield State 
Asylum from 1907 until 1910. Mr. Car- 
roll is a member of the American Bar Asso- 
ciation, the Massachusetts State Bar Asso- 
ciation, the Boston Art Club, the Wollaston 
Golf Club, the Bostonian Society, the Beta 
Theta Pi Fraternity, and the National Cham- 
ber of Commerce, of which he is a member 
of the Committee on Fire Prevention. He 
is a Democrat in politics, and always takes 
part in the activities and counsels of that 
party. 




JOHN E. EATON 



JOHN E. EATON 

John E. Eaton, senior member of the 
firm of Eaton & McKnight, attorneys, 45 
Milk Street, was born February 26, 1871, 
at Truro. N. S. He 
was educated at 
Acadia College, 
WOlfville, N. S., 
.•mtl after w a r d s 
graduated f r o m 
Harvard L'niver- 
sity in 1S93 and 
Harvard L a w 
School in 1896, ol)- 
taining the degrees 
(.t A.B. and LL.B. 
He was admitted 
to the Bar in 1895 
one year before his 
graduation from 
the Law School, 
in 1896 he fnrnied a law partnership with 
luhvin T. McKnight under the style of 
Eaton S: ^McKnight, and the firm has re- 
mained unchanged since. Mr. Eaton is a 
director of the ( iuaranty Trust Co. of Cam- 
bridge, the Hyde Park Trust Co., and the 
Melrose Trust Co. His clubs are the Bostnn 
Cit\- and the Highland of West Roxbury, 
of which he is vice-president. Mr. Eaton 
was married March 20. 1897, to Anna M. 
Hathaway, and they have two children. 
Ruth Hathaway Eaton and John Edgar 
Iviton, Jr. 

h:i)WARD HUMPHREYS PALMER 

Edward H. Palmer, member of the law 
firm of Emery, Booth, Janney & \'arney of 
Boston and New York, was i)(jrn in Boston. 
Shortly after the death of his father, Ed- 
ward Dorr Griffin Palmer, who was a well 
know physician, he was educated in the 
schools and universities of France and Ger- 
manv. Upon his return to this country he 
graduated LL.B. from the Harvard Law 
School in 1894. He was admitted to the 
New York Bar and the Suffolk County Bar 
in 1895. and is also a memlier of the Federal 
Bar. The Sorbonne, Paris, France, con- 
ferred the S.B. degree upon him in 1890. 



THE I^OOK OK BOSTON' 



445 



After practicing- for some time aldue in Bos- 
ton, he was for six years one of the patent 
attorneys in the Patent Department of tlie 
United States Machinery Co. He became 




EDWARD H. PALMKR 



associate<I with tlie lirni <if iuner_\ , Bodth, 
Janney & X'arney in 191 2 antl was admitted 
to partnership in 1914, handling United 
States patent law cases and specializing in 
foreign patent law on account of his knowl- 
edge of foreign languages and familiarity 
with the requirements and technicalities of 
foreign patent ])ractice. ]\Ir. Palmer is a 
memljer of the Masonic fraternitv, and is 
associated with St. Johns Lodge of Boston 
and .Mt. \ ernoii Cha])ter of Ro.xliurw His 
forbears were Puritans who came over in the 
"Fortune" about 162 i, and settled in Plxin- 
outh. The first American ancestor was 
William Palmer, and many menil)ers of the 
early family figured in the Revolutionar\- 
and Indian \\ ars. Mr. Pahuer's early child- 
hiMid was si)ent at the famil\- home in what 
was then Montgomery Place, now Bosworth 
Street, where Oliver Wendell Holmes and 
other notable characters were neighbors. 
His offices are at 50 Congress Street. 




JOHN LOWELL 

John Lowell, the sixth of that name in 
direct line, was born in Boston, May 23, 
1856, educated at private schools, graduated 
from Harvard Col- 
lege in 1877, at- 
tended the Harvard \ 
Law .School, and 
after admission to I 
the Bar in 1880 1 
])racticed alone un- 
til he j(jined his 
f a t h e r, the late 
Judge Ji ihn Li iwell, 
who resigned from 
the bench in 18S3, 
the firm name Ijeing 
John Lowell, John 
Lowell, Jr., which 
later lie c a m e 

I 11 ,- • I ., JOHN LOUEI.L 

Lowell, Smith tK: 

Lowell, and eventuall_\- assumed the present 
title of Lowell & Lowell, his brother, James 
A. Lowell, being n;>\v associated with him. 
He is engaged in general practice and is 
trustee and general counsel for the Em- 
])loyers' Liabilitx' .Assurance Co., of Lon- 
don, b.ngland, counsel for several large cor- 
])orations, member of the Council of the Bar 
.Association of the City of Boston, and of 
the I'.xecutive Committee of the .American 
Bar .Association, trustee of the Massachusetts 
General Hospital, the Society for Promot- 
ing Agriculture, treasurer of the Harvard 
Loan Fund, member of the Sinking Fund 
Commission of Newton, the A'isiting Com- 
mittee of the -Arnold .Arboretum and Bussey 
In.stitution, the ALassachusetts Charitable 
Society, the Harvard, Tavern and E.xchange 
Clubs of Boston, Harvard Club of New 
A'ork, and ]iresi(.lent of the Union C lulj of 
Boston. 



.Almost with the settling of Boston there 
were supplementar\- and inferior Courts, but 
f I ir many years there was no Bar. 

Not until 1701 were attorneys recognized 
as officers of the Court. In that year thev 
were required to take oath before being- 
allowed to pr.'ictice. 



446 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ROBERT GARDNER McCLUNG 

Robert Gardner McClung was born in 
Knoxville, Tenn., July 3, 1868. His father, 
Franklin Henry McCIung, was a prominent 




ROBERT G. MCCLUNG 



merchant of the Southwest. Flis great- 
grandfather, Charles ]\lcClung, was a 
member of the Tennessee Constitutional 
Convention of 1796; and, as a member of 
the committee appointed for that purpose, 
drafted the first Constitution of Tennessee. 
One of his ancestors was James White, who 
was a captain of North Carolina Militia 
(1779-81 ), in the Revolution, and was the 
f:, under of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1791. 
The lantl having been granted to him by the 
state of North Carolina, he settled upon the 
site of the future Kmixville in 1786; but it 
\\as five vears later that the land was sur- 
veyed, and sold in lots, and the name Knox- 
ville given to the town in honor of General 
Henry Knox, who was Secretary of War un- 
der President \\'ashington. In 1813, as briga- 
dier-general of East Tennessee Militia Vol- 
unteers, he accompanied General Jackson in 
the expedition against the Creek Indians. 
His mother was a daughter of Adam Lee 



Mills, of St. Louis, who, as a young man, 
fought under General William Henry Har- 
rison in the battle of Tippecanoe; was the 
first president of the Boatmen's Bank of St. 
Louis, the oldest Itank in Alissouri ; and is 
said to have established the first mail line 
west of the Mississippi River. Through his 
father's mother ( a daughter of Calvin Mor- 
gan, a merchant and landowner of Knox- 
ville, Tennessee ) he is descended f re mi 
James Morgan, who landed in Boston in 
1636, and settled in Roxbury, Mass., but in 
1649 removed to New London, Conn. From 
James Morgan were descended, also, Edwin 
D. Morgan, the Republican "War Gov- 
ernor" of New York; General John Hunt 
Morgan, the daring Confederate cavalry 
officer; and John Tyler Morgan, for thirty 
years L^nited States Senator from Alabama 
(T877-1907). From Miles Morgan, who. 
according to a historian of the Morgan 
family, was a brother of James Morgan, and 
who landed at Boston in 1636, and in the 
same year settled at Springfield, Mass., 
Junius Spencer Morgan, the London and 
New York banker, was descended. Also, 
through his father's mother, he is de- 
scended from John Emerson, the first 
Emerson graduated at Harvard College 
(1656), and the first minister of Gloucester, 
Mass. ; and from Samuel Symonds, Deputy 
Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony 
(1673- 1 678), whose daughter Ruth married 
John Emerson. From John Emerson and 
from Deputy Governor Symonds were de- 
scended, also, Samuel Phillips, a founder of 
Phillips Academ}-, Andover, ]\Iass. ; John 
Phillips, founder of Phillips Exeter Acad- 
emy, Exeter, N. H. ; John Phillips, first 
mayor of the City of Boston ; W'endell 
Phillips ; and Phillips Brooks. From Joseph, 
a brother of John Emerson, Ralph Waldo 
Emerson was descended. A brother, Lee 
McClung, was treasurer of Yale L^niversity 
(1904-1909) and treasurer of the L'nited 
States (1909-19 12). 

The subject of this sketch is a graduate 
of Phillips Academy, Andover (1886), Yale 
College (1891), and the Harvard Law- 
School (T894). He was admitted to the 



TIIF. BOOK OF BOSTON' 



447 



Suffolk County Bar, Scpteinljer 12, 1893. 
For two Aears (1894-1896) he was in the 
office of Jolm D. Long and Alfred Hemen- 
wav. F"or several years his practice was 
general ; Init he now specializes in the law 
of propertv, and his work consists largely 
in drawing wills, trust indentures, and sim- 
ilar legal i)apcrs, and in settling estates. In 
politics he is an indoi)cndent Republican. In 
college he was a meniher of the Psi Upsilon 
Fraternity. He is a member of the Boston 
Bar Association ami of the i'niversity Club 
of Boston. His office is at 6 Beacon Street, 
and he resides at 24 Marlborough Street. 



Boston leads the nation for the excellence 
of her hotels and restaurants, when jirices 
are taken into consideration. 

FRFD H. CII.F 
Fred 11. tiile, attorney-at-law and inven- 
tor of the (iile Monocycle Engine, was born 
at Alfred, Maine, June 7. i860, the son of 

.\lbion Keith Gile, 
I \\ ho was a member 
I f the Maine Legis- 
lature and who 
[tilled, at different 
I times, nearly every 
office in the town 
of Alfreil and the 
|('ounly of York, 
land was also the 
pioneer grow er of 
I c ra n be r r i e s in 
Maine. .Mr, Gile 
was educated at 
Bow (loin C'ollege 
and the L'niversit\- 
of Michigan. He 
began his business career at Buffalo, X. ^'., 
in 1882 and is now engaged in the practice 
of law at 6 iieacon Street. Fie is president 
of the C.ile Engine Cori)oration and Chair- 
man of the Board of Directors of the (iile 
^Monocycle Engine ( o., :i subsidiar\' con- 
cern. He is a luember of the I'si \J Fra- 
ternity. Air. (iile was man-ied August 8, 
i88r, to F'annie M. Lincoln, of Brunswick, 
Me. He has three sons and two daughters. 





I'.DWIX UTIS CIllLDS 

l'".dwin ( ). Childs, attorney-at-law, was 
born in Xewton .Vugust 10, 1876. He re- 
ceived the A.B. degree upon graduating 
from Harvard in 
1890) and olitained 
the LL.B. degree in 
i9(.)i from the Bos- 
ton L'niversit\' Law 
School. He is a 
Republican anc 
served as Mayor 
of Newton, Mass., 
in 1914-15 and has 
been reelected for 
'16 and '17. Mr. 
Childs' practice is 
general in charac- 
ter and he main- 
tains a Boston office 
at 405 Sears Build- edvmn o. child-, 

ing. He is a mem- 
ber of the Middlesex Club, the Harvard 
Clul). the Nonantum Athletic Association, 
the Pi Eta Society and the Epsilon Pi F^'ra- 
ternit\-. Mr. Childs is also a member of 
the Elks, the Betsy Ross, N. E. O. P., the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, the 
Heptasophs, Knights of Pythias, and is a 
Mason of high standing, lielonging to Blue 
Lodge, Cha])ter, Council, Conimantlery and 
the Scottish Rite bodies. 

GEORGE A. SALTMARSH 

George A. Saltmarsh, attorney-at-law, 
comes of fine old English ancestry. His 
first American ancestor was Thomas Salt- 
marsh, a captain in the Ro\al Navy, who 
settled in Charlestown, Mass., early in the 
eighteenth centur)-. Mr. Saltmarsh is the 
eklest son of (iilman and Harriet Emeline 
(Robertson) Saltmarsh, and was born in 
Bow, N. H., October j8, 1858. He at- 
tended the ])ulilic schools of Bow and Con- 
cord, the seminar}- at Tilton. and took two 
rears' ])rivate instruction under the late 
Amos Hadley, Ph.D. Mr. Saltmarsh then 
entered Dartmouth College, from which he 
graduated with honors in 1884, recei\'ing the 



448 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



degree oi A.B. In 1885 he entereil the 
Boston University Law School and grad- 
uated in 1887 with the degree of B.L. 
Short!}' after graduation lie was achnitted to 




GEORGE A. SM.T.MARSH 



the Suffolk Bar, and in 1906 to the New 
Hampshire Bar. Soon after his admission 
to the Bar, Mr. Saltmarsh opened an office 
in Boston, since which time he has practiced 
his profession with great success. For ten 
years Mr. Saltmarsh was associated with 
Sherman L. Whipple, the eminent lawyer, 
but he now practices his profession alone. 

Since 1900 Mr. Saltmarsh has resided in 
Winchester, with a summer home near Con- 
cord, where his family spend several months 
of the year. 

Mr. Saltmarsh is an attendant of the Con- 
gregational Church. He is a member of 
the Palestine Lodge of Everett, Royal Arch 
Chapter Commandery, Knights Templar and 
of the Massachusetts Consistory of Boston, 
in which he has attained the thirty-second 
degree. 

Mr. Saltmarsh married in 1890, in Ever- 
ett, Mass., Miss N. Gertrude Soulee, daugh- 
ter of David A. and Lucy M. (Rogers) 




Soulee of Everett. Five children have been 
born, Sherman Whipple, George .\l)bott, Jr., 
Lucy Marguerite, and Roger Walcott, and 
Harriet Gertrude, who died young. 

ROBERT H. O. SCHULZ 

Rol)ert H. O. Schulz, memljer of the 
Norfolk County Bar, was Ijorn in Boston, 
April 7, 1866, and was educated in the pub- 
lic schools. He read 
law in the office of 
W. E. L. Dillaway 
in Boston and w ith 
Charles A. Mackin- 
tosh of Dedham, 
also ob t a i n i n g a 
course of study at 
the Boston Univer- 
sity Law School. 
He was admitted ti > 
the Bar in 1888 
and started to prac- 
tice law in Ded- 
ham, suljsequently 
removing to Bos- 
ton. His offices are '^^""'^ "• °- ^'^"'"-^ 
in the Tremont Building. Mr. Schulz is a 
Repuljlican and was for nine years Assistant 
District Attorney of the southeastern dis- 
trict. He has also served as Town Moder- 
ator of Dedham. Mr. Schulz has worked 
alone during the greater part of his legal 
career and his practice is of a general char- 
acter. He is a director of the W. F. 
Schrafft & Sons Corporation, and in 1893 
was married to Louise N. Schrafft, a daugh- 
ter of the founder of the company. They 
have two sons and one daughter. 

JAMES R. MURPHY 

James R. Murphy, member of the Suffolk 
Bar, was born at Boston, July 29, 1S53, the 
son of James and Catherine Murphy. He 
was graduated from Georgetown Univer- 
sity, A.B., in 1872. Loyola College, A.M., 
in 1873, and Boston University, LL.B., in 
1876. For three years he acted as in- 
structor in Latin at Loyola College, Balti- 
more, and Seton Hall, New Jersey, at the 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



449 



same time taking up the private study uf 
law. In 1873 he entered the ottiees of 
Judge J. (i. .\l)hott and Benjamin Dean in 

F)()ston. and was aihuitted to the bar at the 







JAMES R. MURPHY 

close of the same vear. lie liegan jjractice 
alone, along general lines, his clientele in- 
eluding many well known building con- 
tractors. He has been counsel in many im- 
portant cases, among which were the Fru 
murder case, the Florence Street murder 
case, and the first important suit instituted 
under the new Employers' Liability Act. In 
politics he is a Democrat, although he has 
never sought preferment along those lines. 
He is a member of the Catholic church, and 
took an active part in the organization of 
the Young Men's Catholic Associations and 
the Catholic Alumni Association. He holds 
membership in the Catholic Union and the 
Royal .Arcanum. Mr. Murphy was mar- 
ried in Maryland, November 22. 1881, to 
Mary Randall, and they have two daughters. 
His otitices are in the new Niles I'.uildinp-, 
and he resides at the Hotel Buckminster. 




In 1830 the boot and shoe industrv was 
acknowledged as a leading one in Boston. 



( 11ARLF:S EDWIN STRATTUN 
Charles E. Stratton was born in Boston 
November 17, 1846, and educated at a pri- 
vate school, at the (juinc\' (Iranimar and 
B o s t o n Latin 
Schools. He gradu- 
ated from Harvanl 
in 1866, and after- 
wards entering the 
1 1 a r \- a r d L a w 
School received tlu- 
degree of LL.l'.. in 
1868. He was ad- 
mitted to the Bar in 
1869 and at once 
took up the general 
])ractice of his pro- 
fession, ,-uid in ad- 
(liti( m h a n d 1 i n g 
numerous trust 

eSflteS l-lIAKI.hN I.IJWIN STKATTON 

Mr. Stratton was one of the organizers 
of the ^ oung Mens Democratic Club of 
Massachusetts, serving as its ])resident from 
i8()3 until 1896. He was for many years a 
member of the Board of Park Commis- 
sioners of the Citv of ISoston and served as 
chairman thereof for twelve }ears, 1896- 
1 908. 

CHARLES E. HELLIER 
C'harles E. Ilellier, lawyer, who has many 
corporate interests in addition to his large 
law practice, was born in Bangor, Maine. 
July 8, 1864, the son of Walter Schermer- 
horn and F.unice Blanchard ( Bixb)- ) Hellier. 
On the ])aternal side he is descended from 
John Hellier, who came to Bangor from 
Devonshire, luigland, in 1824. The mater- 
nal ancestors were Puritans, who came to 
New England in 1630, 1637 and i')44. Mr. 
Hellier received his preliminary education at 
the Bangor High School, graduated from 
A'ale in 1886, and after a semester course at 
the University of Berlin, entered the Boston 
L^niversity Law School, from which he 
graduated LL.B. in 1890, completing his 
legal studies in the ofifice of Robert M. 
Morse. Shortly alter his admission to the 
bar he became interested in the development 
of railroads ;ind coal fields in Kentuckv. He 



450 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



is president of the Dig Sandy Co., which owns 
one hundred and thirty-three thousand acres 
in the Elkhorn coal fields of Pike County, 
Kentucky ; president of the Elkhorn Coal & 




CHARLES E. HELLIEK 



Coke Co.; a director of the Mitchell Coke 
Co.. and the Allegheny Coke Co. He is also 
interested in many industrial and commer- 
cial companies. :\Ir. Hellier served as a 
member of the Citizens' Examining Com- 
mittee, Boston Public Library, and is at 
present a member of the American Academy 
of Political and Social Science; the Massa- 
chusetts Horticultural Society, the Massa- 
chusetts Society of Natural History, Uni- 
versit\' Clulj of I5oston, University Club of 
New York, and the Graduates Club of New 
Haven. Mr. Hellier was married, July 8, 
1886, to Mary L. Harmon of New Haven, 
Conn. His offices are in the Equitable 
Building, and he has residences at 105 
Beacon Street and Marion, Massachusetts. 




In New England, during Colonial days, 
the practice of law was not given a very 
high place among the pursuits of men. 



LOUIS C. SMITH 
Louis C. Smith, of the legal firm of 
Heard, Smith & Tennant, was born at Mid- 
dlefield, Mass., March 3, 1870. He was 
educated at the 
Worcester (Mass.) 
Polytechnic Insti- 
tute, ranking third I 
in his class, and | 
being one of six 
who received prizes 
for scholarship. He 
spent seven years as 
examiner in the 
patent office at 
Washington, dur- 
ing which time he 
studied law at the | 
National University 
Law School, from ' 
which he received louis c. smith 

the degree of LL.B. in 1895 and LL.M. 
in 1896. He took a special course in patent 
law at the Law School of George Wash- 
ington University, receiving the M.P.L. de- 
gree in 1897. With this th(_irough equip- 
ment he came to Boston and formed his 
present connection. 

LAWRENCE A. FORD 
Lawrence A. Ford, lawyer, was born in 
Newton, Mass., September 21, 1874, the 
son of William Henry and Bertha (Mahan) 
Ford. His classical 
education was ob- 
tain e d at Holy 
Cross College, 
from w h i c h he 
graduated A.B. in 
1895. Harvard 
Law School con- 
ferred the LL.B. 
degree upon him in 
1898, and after ad- 
mission to the Suf- 
folk Bar he began 
practice in the of- 
fice of G a s t o n. 
Snow & Saltonstall. 
and was admitted lawrence a. ford 




THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



451 



to partnership in the linn in 191 2. Mr. 
Ford is a Democrat in poHtics and is a mem- 
ber of the American I5ar Association, the 
Bar Association <>{ the City of Boston, the 
Essex County Bar Association, Elks, 
Knights of Columbus, and the Harvard 
Club of Boston. His offices are at ^^ Con- 
srress Street and he resides at Beverlv. Mass. 

FREDERICK ADAMS TENNANT 

l'>ederick A. Tennant, of the firm of 
Heard, Smith & Tennant, patent attorneys, 
was born in Riplex', Chautauqua Count\-, N. 

v.. May 18, 1 87 1. 
He is a graduate of 
Cornell University 
and of the National 
Law School and 
George Washing- 
ton Universitv of 
Washington. D. C. 
He became an as- 
sistant examiner in 
the L'nited States 
I'atent Office, Au- 
gust 18, 1895, and 
was Assistant Com- 
missioner of Pat- 
ents from 1909 un- 
til June 15, 1913. 
Mr. Tennant was furmerh' a member of 
the Faculty of the Natii;nal University Law 
School. Although born in New York State 
he is of old New I'.ngiand ancestrv. descend- 
ing from the Ailams family, nf which 
Presidents John Adams and John Uuinc}- 
Adams were members. 

His clubs are the Boston Cit\- :uiil the 
University, of \\'ashington, D. C. His 
cffices are in the ( )ld South Building. 

BERNICE J. NOYES 

liernice J. No}-es, [latent solicitor, was 
l)orn in .\])ington, February 23, 1863, the 
son of Henry and Mary Ellen (Faxon) 
Noyes. He is the ciglith in descent from the 
originator of the .\merican branch of the 
fann'lv, whu settleii in Newburxpurt in 
1631. }ilr. Noyes' immediate pri igcnitors 




FREDERICK A. TENNANT 



have always resided in Abington, his grantl- 
father, great-grandfather and great-great- 
grandfather, all surnamed Daniel, having 
been residents of that town. Mr. Noyes 
was educated in the ])ublic schools and by 
private teachers, and at the age of seven- 
teen vears he entered the office of a patent 
soliciting iirm. Two years later he was 
ajipearing in cases before the Patent Of- 
fice, and luning learned every detail of 
the work began business for himself in 
1802. The thoroughness of his work soon 
bn night him a large clientele and he nnw 
conducts patent catises for some of the larg- 
est corporations in the State. Mr. Noyes 
is a menilier of the firm of Noyes & Harri- 
man, with offices at 40 Court Street, his 
partner being a member of the P>ar, who 
looks after the legal end (if the business. 
He is a member of the City Club and the 
Boston Society of Electrical Engineers. 
His residence is in West Roxbury. 

MARSLLALL PUTNAM THOMPSON 

Marshall P. Thoiups(jn, lawyer, was 
l)orn January 24, 1869, in Lawrence, ALass. 
He received the A.B. degree from Dart- 
mouth College in 
1892 and he grad- 
uated from Har- 
vard Law School 
in 1897 with the 
degree of LL.P).. 
jiracticing in Bus- 
ton since. Mr. 
T h o m p s o n has 
been connected with 
m a n \' important 
cases relative to 
corjiorative man- 
agement and or- 
ganization, h a s 
acted frequently as 
Receiver, Auditor, ^'a'^shai... p. tho.mpson 
IMaster and Arl>itrator. He has delivered 
luimerous public addresses and was lecturer 
on Private Liternational Law at the Amos 
Tuck .Schoiil of Dartmouth College in 
1901-2 and is a menilier of the Massachu- 




452 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



setts Bar Association, Delta Kappa Epsilon 
Fraternity, Harvard Cluli, Sons of the Revo- 
lution, Sons of the American Revolution, 
Society of the War of 1812, Loyal Legion, 
Society of American Wars, Reserve Corps 
7th Co., Coast Artillery M. V. M., Bos- 
tonian Society and the Dartmouth and Re- 
publican Clul)S. His offices are at 15 State 
Street. 

CHARLES AIANDE\-1LLE LUDDEN 
Charles M. Luclden, lawyer, was born in 
Dixfield, Maine, November 3, 1863. He 
graduated from Tufts College with the de- 
gree of A. B. in 1886 
and from Har- 
\ard L^niversit}-, 
Law School in 
the class of 1889 
with the A.M. and 
LL.B. degrees. He 
w as admitted to the 
Bar in 1889, and 
has since practiced 
in Boston, making 
a specialt}' of cor- 
poration law. Mr. 
Ludden comes of 
English ancestry, 
the American 
CHARLES M. LUDDEN Jjrauch of thc fam- 

ily being established at Braintree in 1687. 
One of his uncles, Luther H. Ludden, was 
a prominent lawyer of Oxford County, 
Maine, and another, Mandeville Ludden, 
also a lawyer, was mayor of Lewiston, 
Maine. His brother Forest E. Ludden is a 
lawyer of Auburn, Maine, and his brother 
William E. Ludden is a lawyer with offices 
in Boston. Mr. Ludden is a member of the 
L^nitarian Church and is a Republican. He 
was City Solicitor of Waltham 1890-97, and 
President of the City Council of Aledford 
1906-7. His offices are in the Congress 
Building, Boston. 

Boston was a pioneer in the development 
of electricity as a motive and lighting power 
and her capitalists have millions employed 
in street railways and lighting plants about 
the countrv. 





HARRY E. PERKINS 



HARRY E. PERKINS 

Harry E. Perkins, attorney-at-law, with 
offices at 43 Tremont Street, is a native of 
Georgetown, where he was born December 
8, 1873. After a_ 
preliminary educa 
tion in the puljlic- 
schools and at 
Dummer Academ\ . 
he entered Bostim 
Lniversity, from 
Mhich he graduated 
C. L. A. in i8()5. 
He then took up 
the study of law at I 
Harvard Law 
Sch(.)(il, and receiv- 
ing his degree inj 
1898 was admitled] 
to the Bar and be- 
gan practice in the 
office of Hiram P. Harriman. Mr. Perkins 
is treasurer of the Board of Trustees of 
the Carleton Home, Georgetown, and is a 
member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. 
He is a Re])ublican in politics and resides 
at 58 East Main Street, Georgetown. 

ARTHUR J. WELLINGTON 

Arthur J. Wellington, of the legal firm 
of Wellington & Page, was born in Arling- 
ton, julv 21, 1 87 1. He graduated magna 
cum laude from 
Harvard in 18941 
and received his 
law degree from I 
the Harvard Law 
School in 1896. 
Upon admission t ) 
the Bar in 1897 he 
began practice in 
the office of Nason 
& Proctor and in I 
1900 organized the | 
present firm. 

Mr. Wellingtim 
is a Repuljlican and I 
was a member of 

the Legislature in arthur j. Wellington 




THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON" 



45,? 



1905-6. He is a trustee and CDUiisel fi>r 
the Arlington Five Cents Saving Bank antl 
has heen trustee of the Robbins Library of 
ArHngton for twelve years. He is a mem- 
ber of the Harvard Club, Boston City Club, 
Massachusetts Reform Cluli, of which he is 
secretary and treasurer, the Conveyancers 
A.ssociation and the Boston and Middlesex 
l^)ar .Associations. 

THOMAS HUNT 

Thomas Hunt, of tlie firm of Castim, 
Snow & Saltonstall, was Ixirn in New Or- 
leans, La.. Se]nenil>er 8, 1866, the son of 

(arlctiin llunt, a 
lawyer, Aleml)cr 
of Congress and 
1 )can of Law Fac- 
iill\ (if the L'niver- 
sit\' of Louisiana. 
His grandfather. 
Thomas Hunt, was 
an eminent surgeon 
and 1 'resident of 
the L'niversity of 
Louisiana. Mr. 
1 hint prepared f 1 >r 
college at Phillips 
( Exeter) Academy 
and graduate tl 
from Harvard Col- 
lege in 1887. He 
grailuated from the Harvard Law School 
in 1890 and began practice in the office of 
Robert M. Morse. He was for seven years 
associated with the late Solomon Lincoln. 
Mr. Hunt now devotes himself exclusivelx' 
to trying and arguing cases. He has general 
charge of the litigation of his firm and has 
often appeared for the Boston & Maine 
Railroad, the Boston Elevated Railway Co., 
the National Shawmut Bank and the Boston 
Consolidated Gas Co. He tried and won 
the Rantoul divorce case. He argued, ftir 
the Boston Elevated Railway Co., the case 
involving the constitutional cjuestion of its 
right to occupy land under the Boston Com- 
mon for a subway station. Mr. Hunt is a 
director of the East Boston Gas Light Co. 




THOM.HS Hl'NT 



and the Elkhorn lHal and Coke Co. His 
clubs are the L'nion and ILarvard of Bos- 
ton, and the University of New York. He 
resides at 44 Mount X'ernon Street and in 
summer at S\\am|)scott. 

GILBERT A. A. PE\'EY 

Gilliert .\. A. iV-\ey, attorne\-at-law, was 
born in Lowell, Mass., August 22, 1851, 
and was educated at the Lowell High School 
and Harvard Col- 
lege. He studied 
law in the office of 
Sweetser & Gard- 
ner, and was ad- 
mitted to the Bar in 
1876. Lie was as- 
sistant counsel fi^r 
the Boston & Maine 
R. R. under Col. 
John H. (leorgf, 
was master in the 
famous Russcl! 
will contest case, 
was City Solic- 
itor of Cambridge 
for seventeen \ears. 
and assistant district attorney of Middlesex 
County for three xears. He is a member 
of the Cambridge and Colonial Clu1)s of 
Cambridge, the Masons, Odd Fellows, Bap- 
tist Social L'nion, Trade Association of 
Cambridge and member nf the council and 
chairman of the committee on Grievances 
of the Middlesex Bar Association. His 
offices are in the I'emberton Building, 
Boston. 

MARCELLUS COGGAN 
Marcellus Coggan, senior member of the 
legal firm of Coggan, Coggan & Dillaway, 
who is one of the oldest lawyers at the 
Suffolk Bar, was born in P.ristol, Maine, 
September 7, 1847. He was educated at the 
Lincoln Academy, New Castle, Me., and 
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me. After 
graduation he was a teacher at Nichols 
Academy, Dudley, Alass., for seven years 
and was principal at Dudle\- .\cademy from 




GILBERT A. 



454 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



1872 until 187Q. lie read law in the office 
of Child & Powers, Boston, and was admit- 
ted to the bar in 1881, remaining with his 
preceptors until 1886, when he formed a 
partnership with the late Judge Schofield, 
under the firm name of Coggan & Schofield, 



which continued until 1896. Mr. Coggan 
then practiced alone until 1900, when his 
son, M. Sumner Coggan, became his part- 
ner. In March, 1910, Linus C. Coggan, 
another son, was admitted to the firm, and 
in i(>i2, George L. Dillaway became an asso- 
ciate and the firm assumed its jjresent title. 
Mr. Coggan's practice is of a general char- 
acter and included in it is consitleral)le cor- 
poration work. He was mayor of Maiden 
in 1886 and 1887, and was chairman of the 
Maiden School Board for two years. He 
is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, the 
Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. 
Mr. Coggan was married November 26, 
1872, to Leulla B. Robbins, and in addition 
to the two sons who are associated with him 
in jiractice, has one daughter — Florence B. 
Coggan. His offices are in the Tremont 
Building and he resides in Winchester. 

GEORGE LEWIS WILSON 

George L. Wilson was born on June 16, 
1870, on the edge of the Miramichi Timber 
Portage, in Fredericksburg. York Count}-, 
New Brunswick, Canada, the son of George 
and Mary (Bird) Wilson. He graduated 
from the University of New Brunswick 
with the A.B. degree in 1888, afterwards 
studying law and beginning practice in 
Fredericton in 1892. Following a visit to 
the Canadian West, he came to Boston, 
February ist, 1897, and was immediately 
admitted to practice on motion before the 
Supreme Judicial Court. He established his 
present offices in the fall of 1913. Mr. 
Wilson is a meml)er of the American Bar 
Association, Bar Association of the City of 
Boston, the Masonic Fraternity and the 
Wollaston Golf, Boston City, and the 
Belmont Springs Country Clubs. He was 



married October 2, 1900, to Adeline Eunice 
Durham of Belmont, Mass., who died Au- 
gust II, 1901, leaving no issue. He was 
married the second time October 28, 1903, 
to Margaret Elinor Henderson of Arling- 




GEORGE L. WILSON 



ton, Mass., and has three children. George 
Lewis, Jr., aged 10; Mary Elinor, aged 8, 
and William Malcolm, aged 4. He resides 
in Belmont, Mass., and has his offices at 
15 State Street, Boston. IMr. Wilson's 
practice, while general in character, is 
mainly confined to corporation and probate 
matters, in which, as in trial work, he has 
been successful. 



The last decade has shuwn a steady 
growth of the industries of Boston, and the 
present outlook in business circles is very 
bright. This condition of affairs has been 
brought about, in a very large measure, by 
the present tendency of Bostonians to in- 
vest their mone\- in home industries. It can 
no longer be said that Boston money is con- 
stantly going to different sections of the 
United States to build up various enter- 
prises, to the detriment of our local progress. 



THR HOOK OF BOSTON' 



455 




EDWARD M. MOORI. 



EDWARD M. .MOORE 

F.dward M. Moore, nicnilicT of llie lecal 

o 

finn nf Russell, Moore & Russell, was bom 
in Lawrence, Mass., November 23, 1870. 
lie was educated at the Boston Latin School 

and ILirvard L'ni- 
versit}', receiving 
the degrees of A.B. 
ni 189J and LL.B. 
in 1895. .Vfter ad- 
mission to the Bar 
lie became asso- 
ciated \vith Russell 
& Russell as junior 
clerk and was ad- 
mitted to partner- 
ship in 1903. Mr. 
.Moore is a Repub- 
lican in politics, is 
a member of the 
llarvanl Cluli of 
Boston, director of the Asbestos Protected 
Metal Co., and John Roberts & Son I'ajier 
Co. His cf^ces are at 2^ State Street and 
his residence, 60 Pembroke Street, Newton. 

THOMAS HASTINGS RUSSELL 
Thomas H. Russell, lawyer, was l)orn 
August 31, 1874, in Newton, Mass., the son 
of Charles F. and Mary S. ( Ba.xter ) Rus- 
sell. Fie is de- 
scended friim John 
H o w 1 a n d , who 
came over in the 
■' Mayflower." and 
Capt. Samuel Has- 
tings of the Revo- 
1 u t i o n a r y army. 
^Ir. Russell's pre- 
l)aratory education 
was received at the 
1! o s t o n L a t i n 
Sciiool and his clas- 
sical course at Har- 
vard, which gradu- 
ated him X.W. in 
the Class of i8(/). 
His legal studies were at the Boston L'ni- 
versity School of Law, from which institu- 




tiiin he received the LL.l'.. degree in i8<;i;. 
.Mr. Russell is a member of the legal firm 
of Russell, Moore & Russell, with offices at 
-'7 State Street. He holds memltership in 
the Bar Association of the City of Boston, 
the Masonic Fraternity, the Princeton Golf, 
and Boston City Clubs, the Board of Direc- 
tors of the Boston Young Men's Christian 
Association, is treasurer of the Central Con- 
gregational Church, trustee of the Brazer 
Building, and trustee cjf the Northeastern 
College. 

ARTHUR II. RL'SSELL 

Arthur 11. Russell of the legal firm of 
Russell, Aloore & Russell began his career 
as a partner in the firm of C. T. & T. H. 
Russell, organized 
in 1845 with office, 
at 27 State Street 
and f (J r o \- e r | 
sevent}' xears con- 
ducted by members | 
of the same familw 

Mr. Russell was | 
l)orn in Ijoston. De- 
cember I. 1 85V. and 
was educated at the 
Boston Latin 
School, Amherst 
College and the | 
Law School of the 
University of Bos- 

^^„ TT„ • , ARTHUR II. RUSSELL 

ton. JHe IS counsel 

for many large commercial interests and 
has acted for the Canadian Government in 
certain international questions. Mr. Rus- 
sell is a son of Thomiis 11. Russell, who, 
at the time of his death in 1911, was Nestor 
of the Boston Bar. and is descended from 
William Russell, who settled in W'atertown 
in 1645 '"itl Colonel Sanuiel Hastings of 
Revolutionary fame. Air. Russell is a mem- 
ber of the Boston City. Calumet and Mon- 
day Clubs of ^\'inchester and an original 
member of the Universitv Clul) of Boston. 




THOMAS H. Rl'SSELL 



Al.iy I. 1822, Boston was incorporated. 
|ohn Phillips, father of Wendell Phillips, 



was the first mayor. 



456 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON- 



WALTER ALEXANDER LADD 

Walter A. Ladd, attorney-at-la\v, was 
horn in Charlestown, Mass., April lo, 1872. 
lie is a great-great-great-grandson of the 




WALTER A. LADD 



famous Paul Revere and also great-great- 
great-grandson of Captain Isaac Baldwin, 
a memher of Colijnel Stark's regiment who 
was killed at the hattle of Bunker Hill. Mr. 
Ladd was educated in the puhlic schools of 
Boston and then entered the Boston Uni- 
versity Law School, graduating in the class 
of 1897. He was admitted to the Suffolk 
bar, August 3, 1897, the United States Cir- 
cuit Court, January 24, 1899, and the 
United States Supreme Court, ]VIay 2, 1910. 
Mr. Ladd's practice is a general one, and 
despite his activity he has found time to 
write and edit \'olume II, Index Digest of 
Massachusetts. He is president of the New 
England Auto Service Company, and he is 
also a member of the Massachusetts Bar 
Association, Somerville Bar Association, 
Boston L'niversity Law School Association, 
Faith Lodge A. F. & A. M.. St. Paul's Royal 
Arch Chapter, Orient Council, R. & S. M., 
Cceur de Lion Commandery, Knight Tem- 



plars, Sons of the American Revolution and 
the Bunker Hill Monument Association. 
Mr. Ladd's offices are in the Old South 
Building, and he resides in Somerville. 



In appearance, in customs and in manners, 
Boston has changed marvelously during the 
past half century ; and a great, far-reaching, 
imposing modern city has taken the place of 
the bustling, quaint, picturesque town of a 
hundred years ago. 

HON. JAMES HENRY \AHEV 

Hon. James H. \'ahey, senior meml>er of 

the legal firm of Vahey & Casson, was born 

in Watertown, Mass., December 29, i87r. 

His education was 

received in the 

\\'aterto\\ n public 

and high schools 

and the B o s t o n | 

L'niversity L a w 

School, from which I 

he graduated cum | 

1 a u d e with the | 

LL.B. degree in | 

1892. After ad- 
mission to the Bar I 

he l)egan jiractice 

fur himself in 1893 

and has since that 

time tried man}- no- 
table cases, several 
of which were capital. Mr. Vahey has been 
a member and chairman of the School Com- 
mittee and member and chairman of the 
Board of Selectmen of Watertown, was a 
delegate to the Democratic National Con- 
vention, 1904; a member of the Massachu- 
setts Senate, First Middlesex District, in 
1907-8, and the Democratic cancUdate for 
Governor in 1908-9. He is a member of the 
American Bar Association, Massachusetts 
Bar Association, Boston Bar Association, 
Middlesex Bar Association, Social Law Li- 
brary, Boston Citv Club, Knights of Colum- 
bus, A. O. U. W.', A. O. H., and the Chari- 
table Irish Society. His offices are at 18 
Tremont Street. 




HON. JAMES H. VAHEY 



THE IU)()K OF BOSTON 



457 



WALTER HERBERT FOSTER 

\\'alter II. Foster, <if tlie law firm of 
Foster, Colby & Pfroinm, has attained 
prominence in various phases of corporation 




HALTER II. FOSTER 



law. Jle was born at Lagrange, Maine, 
March 31, 1880, the son of Ernest Mont- 
gomery and Caroline (Banton) F'oster. 
Two of his forljears served in the Revolu- 
tionary War, Captain Timothy Foster and 
his son Stephen, the latter being only four- 
teen years of age when he entered the serv- 
ice. Mr. Foster was educated in the public 
schools and by private instruction, and came 
to Boston in iqoo. He graduated from the 
University of Maine Law School in i<)05 
with the LL.B. degree. He then entered 
Harvard L'niversity and took a special 
course in advancetl English, Philosoph\', 
Economics and History. He entered the 
ofiRces of Bancroft G. Davis and Henry S. 
MacPherson in 1907, and one year later 
formed a partnership with Mr. MacPherson 
under the lirm name of MacPherson & 
Foster. During the ne.xt two years he was 
engaged in trying injury cases for the Bos- 
ton Elevated Railway, and argued a number 
of important ones in the Supreme Court. 



Ju Ma}-, lyio, he organized the tirm of 
F'oster & Colby, which eventually became 
F'oster, Colby & Pfromm. Mr. Foster is 
connected with important litigation upon the 
question of promoters' lialjilit}- to corpora- 
tions, and has handled large matters in the 
New York and Pennsylvania courts, as well 
as in Massachusetts. He received his de- 
gree of LL.M. from the l'ni\-ersitv of 
Maine in 1914. Mr. Foster was married 
October 23, 1909, to Gertrude Sullivan of 
Brookline, and they have one daughter, 
Daphne, born FVbruary 15, 1913. He is a 
member of the Harvard Club of Boston, 
the Boston Ikisiness and Professional Men's 
Military School and the lioston liusiness 
and Professional Men's RiHe Club. Mr. 
F\)ster resides at Belmont, and is fond 
of out-door life. He is a L'nitarian. 

FRANCIS PAUL GARLAND 

Francis P. Garland, who is an unusuallv 
active trial lawyer, was born at \'allejo, 



187^. He came to 



California, April jo, 
Boston when eleven 
years of age, antl 
after preparation in 
the public an( 
Latin High Sclioo 
of Somerville, en- 
tered Harvard, 
f r o m w h i c h h e 
graduated summa 
cum laude in 1898 
with the A.M. and 
A.B. degrees. I lis 
legal education was 
obtained at Har- 
vard Law School I 
and he was ad- 
mitted to the liar 
in 1900. He is a member of the .\merican 
and Massachusetts Bar Associations, the 
Harvard Club of Boston, the Harvard and 
Central Chilis of Somer\ille, and the Somer- 
ville Board of Trade. Mr. Ciarland was 
married June 4, n^o^, to Alice R. McGann 
of Somerville, and they have one daughter, 
Dorothy Garland. Mr. Garland's offices 
are in the i'emberton Building. 




FRANCIS P. GARLAND 



458 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



GEORGE \V. ABELE 

George W. Abele, lawyer, who is a mem- 
ber of the firm of French, Abele & Allen, 
was born February 22, 1875. He gradu- 
ated from Harvard College in 1897 and 
from the Harvard Law School in 1900. He 
was admitted to the Bar immediately after 
leaving Harvard and began practice the 
same year. 

Mr. Abele is a member of the Masonic 
Fraternitw the American Bar Association 
and the Boston City Clulj. He was a mem- 
lier of City Council in 1908-09 and in 1912, 
and is at present a member of the Cit}- Plan- 
ning Board. Mr. Abele is also a trustee of 
the Thomas Crane Public Library, 11 
Washington Street, Ouincy, Mass., which is 
a coml)ination of three former puldic 
libraries. His offices are at 45 Milk Street, 
Boston. 

JULIUS NELSON 

Julius Nelson, senior meml)er (if the well 
known legal firm of Nelson, Reinstein & 
Hill, was born in Boston, October 10, 1871. 
Mr. Nelson was educated at the Brimmer 

Grammar School, 

English High 
School and the Bos- 
l' lU L'niversit\' Law 
Schi Kil. 

L'pon his gradu- 
al ii m fmm the Eng- 
lish High School in 
1888 he received 
the Franklin 
Medal, and in 1895 
he was graduated 
from the Boston 
University L a w 
School with the 
degree of LL.B. 
JULIUS NELSON ( HI a g u a c u m 

laude). Immedatel\- upon admission to the 
Bar in 1895, Mr. Nelson liegan the practice 
of his profession, remaining seven years in 
the office of George R. Swasey. and he then 
formed his present connection. 




In jiiilitics, Mr. Nelson is a Republican, 
although he has never sought or held pub- 
lic office. Llis offices are at 18 Tremont 
Street. 

ALVAH L. STINSON 

Alvah L. Stinson, lawyer and writer on 
legal and other subjects, was born at Swan's 
Island, Maine. He was educated at Rock 




ALVAH L. STINSON 



Port, Maine High School, Maine Wesleyan 
Seminary, Kents Hill, Maine, and by private 
tutors in Boston. He began his business 
career in Boston, in 1890, as a private tutor 
in the English branches, and preparing ad- 
dresses and orations for public speakers, 
many of which were pronounced masterly. 
He studied law and was admitted to 
the Massachusetts Bar in 1900, and to the 
United States Bar in 1901. Mr. Stinson is 
engaged in the general practice of his pro- 
fession and is a successful trial lawyer, par- 
ticularly in jury trials, many verdicts attest- 
ing his ability as a jury advocate. He is a 
most successful handler of witnesses and is 
a forceful speaker, appearing in many polit- 
ical campaigns; and in 1913, 1914, 1915 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



459 



lectured Ijefore the W'uiiien's Clubs oi Mas- 
sachusetts on laws pertaining to \vomen. 
He is the author of "Women under the 
Law," ])ulilislK'(l ill 11)14. \\hicli had a large 
sale. 

Mr. Stinson is a ineniher of several 
clubs, and is a director in many corpora- 
tions. He is a prodigious reader, well in- 
formed and inde])endent in politics. His 
offices are in the Tremont Building. 



Jeremiah (IridlcN'. whcj tlnurished in the 
law between 174 J and iy()J. has been called 
the "Father nt the I'.nstnn I'.ar." 

RKIIARD r. ELLIOTT 

]\ichanl P. I'-Uiott, la\v\er, mechanical 
engineer ami inventor, was born Julv N, 
1858, and was educated in the public 

schools, ]\rcGaw 
Xornial Institute, 
Merrimac, N. H., 
and at the Boston 
University Law 
School. He began 
his business career 
as a mechanical en- 
gineer in 1878, and 
has taken out pat- 
ents on upwards of 
fort V inventions 
;dong the line of 
machiner\" design- 
ing and machine 
buikling. His legal 
ci lurse was taken 
as an aid to his stud\" in patent causes, and 
he graduated LL.B. in 1897. Air. Elliott 
is president of the Eco Manufacturing Co., 
director of the Peerless Machinery Co., and 
treasurer (jf the Eco Welt Shoe Co. Since 
taking up the ]iractice of law, he has been 
counsel for a large number of corporations. 
He was a member of the Nashua, N. H., 
school board for six years and holds mem- 
bership in the Boston City Club, the Lex- 
ington Golf Club and tin- Xa^hu.a ( ountry 
Club. 




RICHARD P. hLLIOTT 




FLh:rciik:R kanney 

I'letcher Ranne\-, whose predilection for 
legal work is doubtless due to his profes- 
sional ancestry, was born at Boston, Sep- 
tember J, i86n. 1 le 
was educated at the 
R o X b u r \- Latin 
School and Har- 
V a r d L'ni\ersit\\ 
graduating from 
the latter magn;i 
cum lautle in 1883. 
He afterwards en- 1 
tered the Bostcn | 
L'niversit\' Law 
School and finished | 
leader in the class] 
of 1886. After ad 
mission to the Bar I 
of Suffolk Count\-, 
he began his pro- fletcher rannev 

fessional career in the (;ffice of Ranney & 
Clark, the senior memljer of which was his 
father, Amljrose .\. Ranney, a leading mem- 
ber of the Bar, who was a representative in 
Congress irom the Thirtl Massachusetts 
District from 1880 to 1886. Richard 
Fletcher, Mr. Rannex's great-uncle on the 
maternal side, was a Justice of the Massa- 
chusetts Sujireme Judicial Court from 1848 
to 1857. In 1895 Mr. Ranney severed his 
connection with the firm of Ranney & Clark 
and for four years practiced alone. In 
i8(j9 he associated with Samuel B. Elmore 
in the firm of Ranney & Elmore, and since 
the dissolution of that partnershiii in igo2 
he has been engagetl alone in general trial 
wurk. Lie has been president of the Rox- 
bury Storage Warehouse Co. since 1906, and 
is a member of the Harvartl Club, the Bos- 
ton Athletic Association, the Phi Kappa 
Beta hVaternit)-, and was jjresident of the 
Boston L'ni\-ersity Law Sch< lol Alumni in 
i()ii and i()i_'. Mr. Ranney was married 
June J4. 1886, to Amy Porter of Haverhill, 
-who died June 22, 1894, leaving two chil- 
dren, I)udle\' Porter Ranne\- and luhel 
( Ranne\ I Lang, wife of Malcolm Lang. 



460 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




JOHN H. BLANCHARD 

Tolin H. Blanchard, lawyer, was Ijorn in 
Somerville, Mass., Aug;ust i6, 1861, and 
was educated in the Charlestown da\- and 

tlie Boston night 
I schools. He studied 

law in the office 
lot" Col. F. S. Hasel- 

tine and was ad- 
I milted to the Bar 

ni 1S83. He has 

al>o been admitted 
[to all the U. S. 

Courts, including 

the Supreme Court. 
Air. Blanchard was 

inarried April 21, 

1884, to Mary A. 
iSkally of Boston. 

The\' have three 
JOHN H. BL.ANCHAKI) childreu, Hugh C, 

who is associated with his father in the firm 
of Blanchard & Blanchard, William H. and 
Marguerite E. Blanchard. Mr. Blanchard 
is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the 
Elks and the Wellington Cluli. His offices 
are in the Pemberton Building. 

WILLIAM REED BIGELOW 

William R. Bigelow of the legal firm of 
Moulton, Loring & Bigelow, was born at 
Natick, Mass., February 10, 1867, receiv- 
ing his preparatory 
education in the 
public schools and 
graduating fro m 
Harvard College, 
cum laude, in 1889. 
Harvard Law- 
School conferred 
the LL.B. degree 
upon him in 1892, 
and being admitted 
to the Bar the same 
year he began prac- 
tice in the office of 
Strout & Coolidge, 
afterwards practic- 
ing alone until he 




formed his present connection. Air. Bige- 
low has conducted many important cases in 
corporation work. He was admitted to 
practice in the Supreme Court of the 
United States, December 20, 1899. He 
is descended from John Bigelow, an early 
settler of Watertown, whose marriage 
to Mary ^\'arren was the first recorded 
there. His offices are in the Old South 
Building. 



WILI,I.\.\1 R. BIGELOW 



Boston is the world's greatest leather 
market, outranking in the value and extent 
of its trade in this staple all other cities. 
One of the great aids in estalilishing Boston 
as a leather market was the fact that fish oil 
for the dressing of the hides was very plenti- 
ful and easily obtained. 

ALPHONSO ADELBERT W\'MAN 

.\l])hons(i A. Wxnian, lawyer, was born 
in West Acton, Mass., January 29, 1862. 
the son of Oliver C. and Caroline ( Chand- 
ler) Wynian. He 
was educated at 
Phillips Exeter 
Academy and Har- 
vard College, ob- 
taining the A.r>. 
degree upon grad- 
uation in 1883. 
After studying law 
and admission to 
the Bar, he began 
practice in Boston 
in 1885 and has 
been active in the 
various branches of 
his profession since 
that time, giving 
especial attention to corporation matters. 
He is a Republican in politics and was an 
Alderman in Somerville, where he still re- 
sides, in 1908. 1909 and 1910. He is a direc- 
tor of the E. L. Patch Co., manufacturing 
chemists. Air. \\'\nian was married in 
1886 to Laura Aldrich, of West Acton. 
His offices are in the Old South Building. 




ALPHONSO A. WVMAN 



THK BOOK OF BOSTOX 



401 



\\II.I!l'R ]IO\VARD roWKRS 



\\ illmr 1 Inward Towers is desceiuled 
from the Poers who figuretl in luiglish his- 
tory. The name LePoer was anghcized by 
William the Cnn(|ueror, and the American 




WILBUR H. POWERS 



Iiranch was established by Walter Power, 
who came from Essex, England, and landed 
at Salem, Mass., in 1634, and settled in 
what is now the town of Littleton, Mass. 
The sons of Walter Power added the "s"' 
to the name. Ekler John White was Mr. 
Powers' first ancestor in this conntry on his 
mother's side. He helped to found Cam- 
liridge, and was elected on its first Board of 
Selectmen in 1634 and 1635. Later he 
moved to Hartford, Conn., was one of the 
founders of that town and a recognized 
leader in civic affairs. Li 1659 he removed 
to Hadley, Mass., and was one of the 
founders of that town and served as repre- 
sentative in the ( ieneral Court of Massa- 
chusetts. Captain Joseph Ta\lor, Mr. 
Powers' maternal great-grandfather, was in 
all the Indian and Colonial wars, and in the 
War of the Revolution was aide-de-camp 
to General Stark. I'lzekiel Powers, Mr. 
^\'ilbur Powers' great-grandfather, was one 



of the first settlers of Croydon. X. IL, w;is 
its largest landow'ner and wealthiest man, 
and was a magistrate of the town under 
King George HL ^lajor Abijah Powers, 
Mr. Powers' grandfather, was a luember of 
the Poard of Selectmen of Croydon, X. H., 
for many years, represented the town in the 
State Legislature three times, and served in 
the War of 181 2 as Captain and Major. 
I-'dias I'owers, father of Wilbur Powers, was 
a farmer ami land surveyor, born May i, 
1S08, and died January 29, 1891. He was 
a Count}' Comiuissioner and Justice of the 
Peace and of the Quorum. 

\\'ilbur Howard Powers was born Janu- 
ary _>2, 1849, in Croydon, X. H. His early 
life \vas S])ent on a farm, but being aml)i- 
tious to (jbtain an education he graduated 
from Kimball L'nion Academy, Meriden, 
X. H. Relying wholly upon his own eliforts 
for a collegiate course, he found a friend in 
Ruel Durkee, — the Jethro Bass of Winston 
Churchill's novel, "Coniston" — who agreed 
to finance him to the extent of sixteen hun- 
dred tlollars, but Mr. Powers was obliged to 
borrow only si.K hundred and seventv dol- 
lars from his benefactor, for he earned the 
rest of his college expenses by his own ef- 
forts. He received the tlegree of A.B. from 
Dartmouth College in 1875; A.M. in 1880, 
and LL.B. from the Boston L^niversitv 
School of Law in 1878. In 1879 — January 
22 — he began the practice of law at 13 Pem- 
berton Sipiare, Boston. From that time on 
his life has l)een filled with man_\- and grow- 
ing activities in various lines of service, 
])rofessional, political, social and educational. 
He has been counsel for several towns and 
railroads, and is executor antl trustee of 
several very large estates. He represented 
Hyde Park in the Legislature three succes- 
sive years, 1890-1892; was a member of the 
Republican State Committee, 1893-1894, 
and was a presidential elector, casting his 
vote for AIcKinley in 1897, and filled luanv 
official positions in Hyde Park. Wliile a 
member of the Legislature he had charge of 
many important measures, and his conspicu- 
ous service made him the acknowledged 



462 



THE BOOK OP' BOSTON 



floor leader on the Repuljlican side of the 
House in the latter part of his legislative 
experience. He has been an active member 
of the United Order ui the Golden Cross, 
National Fraternal Congress of America, 
Roval Arcanum, Delta Kappa Epsilon. 
Masons, Society of Sons and Daughters of 
American Revolution, Boston City Club, 
Colonial Club of Cambridge, Waverly Club 
of Hyde Park, of which he was president 
for manv vears. Point Independence Yacht 
Club, Dartmouth Alumni Association, 
Alunuii Association Boston University 
School of Law, and president of the Asso- 
ciation, 1 905- 1 906; Kimball Union Acad- 
emv Alumni Association, also president; 
the Republican Club of Massachusetts, and 
president National Fraternal Congress of 
America in 19 13. 

]\Iay I, 1880, he was married to Emily 
Owen, and they had two children, Walter 
Powers, who is a lawyer, and Myra Powers, 
who died March 4, 1916. His first wife 
died in 19 12, and on May 17, 19 14, he mar- 
ried Lottie I. KoehJer, nee Mills, and now 
resides in Brooklint , IVIass. 

ALFRED LITTLE WEST 

Alfred Little West, attorney, who is a 
member of the legal firm of Tinkham, Chit- 
tenden & West, with oftices at 27 State 
Street, was born January 29, 1874. 

He was educated in the public schools and 
the Boston Latin School, graduating in 
1893 and l)ecoming engaged in mercantile 
pursuits the following year. He subse- 
quentlv studied law and was admitted to 
practice in 191 1. 

Mr. \\'est"s maternal ancestors were of 
old New England stock, four male mem- 
bers being officers in the Revolutionary War. 

He is a Republican in politics, and holds 
membership in the Central Club of Somer- 
ville, the Knights of Pythias, Elks and the 
Masonic Fraternitv. 




CLARENCE W. ROWLEY 



CLARENCE W. ROWLEY 

Clarence W. Rowley, who is a prominent 
member of the Boston Bar, was born May 
19, 187 1, at Edgartown, Martha's Vine- 

\ard. He studied 

law in the oiSce of 
\\\ B. Gale, teach- 
ing night school in 
1890-91 while pur- 
suing his studies. 
He was admitted to | 
the Bar February 
10, 1893, after- 1 
wards passing the 
examinations that 
permitted him to 
j)ractice at the Bar 
of the United 
States District and 
Circuit Courts, the 
United States 
Court of Ajipeals and the L^nited States 
Supreme Court. His offices are in the Old 
South Building. 

WILLIAM GOODWIN RENWICK 

William Goodwin Renwick, attorney, was 
born of American parents in Berlin, Ger- 
manv, January 10, 1886. He was educated 

at the Pomona Col- 

lege in California 
and Harvard Law 
School, received the 
A.B. degree from 
the college in 1907, 
and the LL.B. from 
the Law School in 

191 1. He began 
practice alone in 

19 1 2, along general 
lines. He is coun- 
sel for the Massa- 
c h u s e 1 1 s State 
Automobile Asso- 
ciation and is the 
legal representative wiluam >.. .<i...w.K 

of several corporations. Mr. Renwick is 
descended from James Renwick, the last 
Covenanter martvr of Scotland, and his 




THK BOOK OF BOSTOX 



463 



.qrandnintluT was a l'"iel(l. (jf NorthfifKl, 
Mass., of wliicli family L'yrus and Eugene 
I'ield were members. He is a !neml)cr of 
the Oakley Country C'lul), and the C'lilnnial 
Cluh of Cambridge, the Weston Golf Club, 
the International Law Club of I'oston, the 
American Society of Internatinnal Law, 
and Commander of tlie Nth Regiment 
Machine (inn Company, and is a collector 
of antique weapons. 



BENJAIMIN PHILLIPS 

Benjamin Phillips, senior member of the 
legal firm of Phillips, \'an Everen & Fish, 
patent attorney's, was born at Lynn, April 



Weld Hill, in the Arnold Arboretum, was 
selected b\- Washington as a point to fall 
back upon in case of necessity at the siege of 
Boston. 

AMASA COLLINS GOULD 

Amasa C. Gould, a successful lawyer who 
is interested in many corporations, was born 
July 6, 187c), in Newton, Alass. He is de- 

scended from okl 

New England an- 
cestry, the Ameri- 
can branch being 
established here in 
1640. He was edu- 
cated in the New- 
ton ])ul)lic schools 
and Harvard Col- 
lege, the last named 
institution confer- 
ring upon him the 
degree of A.l!. in 
1900, A.M. in 
1 00 1, and LL.B. 
in loo.v He was 
AMASA c. GOULD admitted to the Bar 

in 1903, and has practiced here since, 
specializing in corporation law. He is a 
director of the Co(")perati\-e Association, 
I'.reail Loaf Alountain Power Co.. H. A. 
Walker Co., Davis Arms Co., Roxbury 
Shoe Thread Co., Wood Bros. Co., Jessuji 
& Moore Paper Co., the Hyatt Memorial, 
and trustee of the Boston Corporation. He 
is a member of the Bar Association of the 
City of Boston, Boston Chamber of Com- 
merce, Brae Burn Cotmtry Club and the 
Harvard Clubs of Bo.ston and New York. 
His offices are at 24 Milk Street. 





BENJAMIN rillLLIl's 

25, 1862. His preparatory education was 
received at the Wesleyan Academy, after 
which he graduated from Dartmouth College 
in 1883 witli the usual degrees. The next 
two vears were spent in study at the Thayer 
School of Civil Engineering, and in 1885 he 
entered the Law School of Boston L^niver- 
sitv, graduating in 1888. He was admitted 
to practice the same year and at once formed 
a partnershi]) with his father, Edward K. 
Phillips, in Lynn. During his last years in 
Lvnn he made a study of i)atent causes, anil, 
upon conn'ng to Boston in the early 'nineties, 
devoted himself to that phase of legal i)rac- 
tice. In 1894 he organized the firm of 
riiillips & Anderson, and this firm through 
successive changes became, in 1907, Phillips, 
\'an Everen & Fish, which is now one of 
the largest and most iironiinent in its line in 
the citv, numbering among its clients many 
of the im])ortant corporations of the .State. 
.Mr. Phillips is a memlier of the Algonquin 
Club ;md is of Welsh .ancestrv. Llis for- 



464 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



bears were among the early settlers of New 
England and figured prominently in the pro- 
fessional life of the early colony. His of- 
fices are in the Exchange Building, 53 State 
Street, a large suite of rooms and a com- 
petent staff of assistants being necessary 
for the extensive business. 



The combination of fire and marine in- 
surance is one (if the most important of the 
branches of the insurance industry in New 



England. 



HON. LOUIS C. SOUTHARD 

Hon. Louis C. Southard was born in Port- 
land, Maine, April i, 1854. Educated in the 
public schools of Portland, Westbrooke 

Maine Seminary, 
Dorchester Massa- 
I c h u s e 1 1 s High 
School, University 
of Maine and Bos- 
ton University Law- 
School. Received 
degree of B.S. in 
1875, J^I-S. in 1892, 
and LL.D. in 1904. 
As a student was 
engaged in teaching 
and newspaper 
work, and edited 
the Easton Bulletin 
for two years after 
HON. LOUIS c. SOUTHARD commenciug prac- 
tice of law at North Easton, Massachusetts, 
in 1877. ^^^s a Representative and Senator 
in the Massachusetts Legislature. Is mem- 
ber of the Alumni Advisory Council, Uni- 
versity of Maine, president American In- 
valid Aid Society, thirty-second degree 
Mason, Past Deputy Grand Master of 
Masons in Massachusetts, managing direc- 
tor and treasurer of the International Pur- 
chasing Company, director and treasurer of 
the Hudson Tannery Company, president 
of the State Wharf and Storage Company, 
trustee Dorchester Savings Bank, etc. 
Clubs : University, Twentieth Century, Pud- 
dingstone, Boston City, Society of the A\'ar 
of 1812. 




EDWARD C. STONE 

Edward C. Stone, who has taken great 
interest in legal educational work and in 
political aft'airs, was born at Lexington, 
Mass., June 29, 
1878, and was edu- 
cated in the Lex- 
ington p u 1j 1 i c 
schools and the 
Boston LIniversity 
Law School, gradu- 
ating from the lat- 
ter magna c u ni 
laude and obtaining 
the LL.B. degree. 
He began practice 
in the office of 
Choate & Hall, 
eventually becom- 
ing a member of 
the firm of Sawyer, 
Hardy, Stone & Morrison. Mr. Stone has 
Ijeen instrvictor and lecturer at the Boston 
University School of Law, and was a lec- 
turer and memljer of the faculty of Y. M. 
C. A. Evening Law School, Boston. He is 
trial counsel for the American Mutual Lia- 
bilit\- Insurance Co. and other corporations. 
Mr. Stone is a Republican in politics and 
was a member of the Massachusetts House 
of Representatives in 1903 and 1904. He 
has been Selectman and Moderator of the 
town of Lexington. He is a member of 
the Masonic Order, the Odd Fellows, the 
Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, the Old 
Belfry Club of Lexington, the Belmont 
Spring Country and the Boston City Clubs. 




EDWARD C. STONli 



To many outside its limits Boston is 
almost a synonym for education. 

HON. GEORGE M. STEARNS 

As an attorney of wide experience and a 
sound practical and judicial mind, Hon. 
George M. Stearns assumed the position of 
special justice of the police court of 
Chelsea, to which he was appointed by 
Governor Bates in 1903, with all the neces- 
sary qualifications for that important office. 



THE l^OOK OF I^OSTOX 



465 



He was burn in Spencer, April 27, 1856, 
and received his education at the Spencer 
Higli School and W'ilbrahain Academy. 
He afterwards entered the liJoston Uni- 
versity Law School and g;raduated LL.B. 
in 1879. H^ ^^''s admitted to the bar the 
following year and to the United States 




HON. GEORGE M. STEARNS 



Circuit Court in June, 1899. He was city 
solicitor of Chelsea for four years antl 
during his term of office rendered many 
important decisions. He was also a member 
of the Common Council for three years and 
served on the Board of Aldermen, being 
for some years chairman of the Board. 
Judge Stearns comes of old New England 
stock, his first American ancestor being 
Isaac Stern, the original way of spelling 
the name, who settled at W'atertown in 
1630. He is a member of the Sons of the 
Revolutitfn, the Knights of Pythias, the 
Masonic Fraternity, the Unitarian Church, 
and is a staunch Republican in politics. 
His legal jtractice is of a general character 
and he has a large clientele. Judge Stearns 
has been connected with many important 
cases during his long and busy career. His 
offices are at 18 Tremont Street. 




BENJAMIN H. CKEENHOOD 

Benjamin H. Greenhood, member of the 
legal firm of Greenhood & Gallagher. i8- 
Tremont Street, was born in Dedhanu 
Mass., November _ 
20, 1870. After due 
preparation he en- 1 
tered the Boston 
University L a w 
School and gradu- 
ated cum laude in | 
iN()5. lie Ijegan 
])ractice in Dedham 
the same year and 
afterwards formed j 
his Boston connec- 
tion, but retained 
his office in ]3ed- 1 
ham. He was asso 
ciated with Asa I' 
French in the de- benjamin h. greenhood 
tense of Joseph V., Seer\-, charged with the 
nuirder of his mother at East Dedham in 
1898, and despite public sentiment secured 
the acquittal of Seery after a ten days' trial. 
He is a memlier of the Odd Fellows, the 
Nor f (ilk Bar Association, New Century 
Club, the Boston Universit\- Alunuii and 
the Detlham Societx' for the .\])])rehension 
of Horse Thieves. 

ALPHONSE CANGL\NO 

Alphonse Cangiano, attorney at law, with 
offices in the Pemljerton Building, was born 
in Italy, March 11, 1884. Attended the pub- 
lic schools of Boston and the Ballou & Hobi- 
gand Preparatory School ; entered the Bos- 
ton University Law School, from which he 
graduated in 1908 with the degree of LL.B. ; 
was admittetl to the l)ar in 1910 and began 
])ractice at once in conjunction with John 
E. Crowley, an association that still con- 
tinues. His practice is a general one and he 
has appeared as counsel in many important 
criminal cases. He has served on various 
Boston connuittees for the relief of earth- 
quake and other sufYerers of Italy. Mr. 
Cangiano comes of illustrious Italian ances- 
tr\-. His grandfather. Michael Cangiano, 



466 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



was appointed ]\Iayor of Sant'Angelo AU'- 
Esca by decree of King Eerdinand II, later 
was appointed Mayor by King Victor 
Emanuel II, and again by King Humbert I. 




ALPHONSE CANCIANO 



In 1844 he was made a Knight of the Royal 
Order of Erancis I, and later was awarded 
the Cross of Honor in recognition of his 
distinguished service. He acted as Govern- 
ment Delegate for the County of Paterno- 
poli, was Captain of the National Guards, 
and Conciliatory Judge for twelve years. 
Mr. Cangiano's father, Mark Anthony, a 
physician, graduated from the University 
of Naples and practiced in Boston for many 
years. Daniel Cangiano, his father's uncle, 
was for a long period physician to the Ro)'al 
House of Bourbons. 

CONRAD J. RUETER 

Conrad J. Rueter, attorney, was born in 
Boston, September 26, 1863, and was edu- 
cated at Harvard College, Boston Univer- 
sity Law School and Bonn University, Ger- 
many. Since admission to the Bar, Mr. 
Rueter has been active in his profession and 
in several commercial enterprises. He is 



secretary of the A. J. Houghton Company, 
and treasurer of Rueter & Company. He is 
a Trustee of the Boston City Hospital and 
on the Visiting Committee of the Germanic 
Museum, Harvard Universitv, holds mem- 
lit-rship in the Boston Art Club, Harvard 
Club, Massachusetts Automobile Club, Bos- 
ton Athletic Associati(_)n, \\'(.illaston Golf 
Clul), the Brae Burn, Seapuit and Tedesco 
Country and the Eastern Yacht Clul)S, also 
the Corinthian Yacht Club. 



JOSEPH WIGGIN 

Joseph Wiggin, attorney, of Maiden, 
Mass., was born at Exeter, N. H., Alarch 7, 
1871, the son of (Judge) Joseph E. and 
Ruth ( Hollis ) Wiggin. His parents moved 
tn Alalden in 1880. He attended the Mai- 
den Pul)lic Schools, graduated from Har- 
vard College (magna cum laude) in 1893 
and from the Harvard Law School in i8g6. 
After his admission to the Bar in 1896 he 
practiced with his father until the latters 
death in 1906, since which time he has prac- 
ticed alone. 

Mr. Wiggin has Iieen interested in many 
of the local enterprises and organizations in 
Maiden. He was Maiden's City Solicitor 
for eight years, a member of its School 
Board for five years, and is now serving 
his fifth year as a trustee of the Maiden 
Public Library. He is vice-president and a 
director of the Eirst National Bank of Mai- 
den, a trustee and member of the Invest- 
ment Committee of the Maiden .Savings 
Bank, and trustee and treasurer of Sanborn 
Seminary of Kingston, N. H. He is a 
member of the Council of the Middlesex 
Bar Association, the Grievance Committee 
of the Massachusetts Bar Association, holds 
memltership in the Boston and American 
Bar Associations, and the Harvard Club of 
Boston. In college he was prominent in 
athletics and was for a year captain of the 
Harvard baseball team. 



THR ROOK OF I'.OSTOX 



467 




KDWAKD i. TAYLOR 



Ein\ARl) IR\"IN(i TAYLOR 

Edward I. Taylor, law \er, and general 
attorney tor New luigland of the Mary- 
land Oasnaltx- C"o. of Italtiinore, was born in 

New Vc irk City, 
l)eceml)er 30, 
i88j. He is of old 
(juaker ancestry, 
1 ) e i n g descended 
from John Sharp- 
less, of Ilathertoii, 
( heshire, England, 
who settled near 
I hester. Pa., in 
(682. Another an- 
cestor was Donald 
L"argill, Scottish 
Covenanter, w h o 
was beheaded in 
Edinburgh, July 27, 
1 68 1, at the age of 
seventy years, because of his religious l)e- 
liefs. After a ])reparatorv education in the 
schools of lloboken, N. J., be became a 
traveling salesman and then entered the New- 
York Universit)- Law School, from whicli 
he graduated in 1907. He was admitted to 
the New York Bar in 1908, and began prac- 
tice there the same year. The New Jersey 
Bar admitted iiiiu July 5, 191 1, and upon 
his apjxiintment to the position of general 
attorney of the Maryland Casualty Co., he 
was admitted to practice in Massachusetts, 
February 14, k^i.v Mr. Taylor is a mem- 
ber of the .\iuerican Bar Association, the 
Philomatliic Society of HoJxjkeii, N. J., 
New York University, Cha])ter Delt.a (.'hi, 
and Colfax Council, Ro)'al Arcanum, lie 
is a Republican in politics and a member of 
the executive committee of the Republican 
Central Committee of Hudscjn Count)', 
N. J. His r.ffices are at 11 1 Milk Street. 
Boston. 

CH. \RLES P. SE.\RLE 

Charles 1'. Searle of the legal firm of 
Searle & Waterhouse w;is born in New 
^ilarlboro, Mass., July 21, 1854. After 
graduating fnmi -\niherst College in 1876 



he studied law and was admitted to the Suf- 
folk County i>ar in 1884. Air. Searle makes 
a s|)ecialty of customs and revenue practice, 
and his lirni h;is the largest business in this 
line in New iuigland. He is a Rei)ublican 
in politics and holds memliershi]) in the 
lirookline Countr\- L'hib, .\lg<jn(pun Club, 
the L'niversity, Mxchange and I'.ssex Coun- 
try Clubs, and the Metropolitan Club of 
Washington, llis offices are at 50 Congress 
Street and his residence 280 Commnnwealth 
Avenue. 



One of the luost beautiful streets in the 
world is Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston's 
fashionable Back J Sack district. 

J.\Mb:S MOTT FL\LLOWELL 

James Mott Hallowell, lawyer, was born 
in We.st Medford, Mass., February 13, 1865. 
He graduated A.B. from Harvard in 1888 
and LL.r>. from 
PI a r van! Law 
School in i8<;3. I Ic 
was admitted to the 
Bar and began 
practice in New- 
York City the same 
y e a r. Returning 
to Massachusetts he 
was made Second 
Assistant Attorne\- 
General of the 
State in 1894, and 
Assistant Attornex 
General in 1898. 
He resigned in 
1903 to take up pri- 
vate practice, and l)ecame a member of the 
firm of Knowlton, Hallowell & Hammond. 
Upon the death of Mr. Knowlton in 1902, 
the firm became Hallowell & Hammond, and 
since 191 1 has been Mayberry, Hallowell & 
Hammond. Lie was City Solicitor for Med- 
ford, Mass., 1902-6. He is a member of 
the American, Massachu.setts and Boston 
Bar AssociatitMis and the L'nion and Coun- 
try Clubs, llis ofifices are at 20 Pem1)erton 
Square. 




IAMi:S M. HALI.OWKl.L 



468 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




HON. ELMER L. CURTISS 



HON. ELMER L. CURTISS 

Hon. E. L. Curtiss. of the legal firm of 
French & Curtis.s, was horn in Der1)v, Conn., 
June II, 1861, and was educated in the puh- 

lie schools and the 

Bridgewater Nor- 
mal School. He 
graduated in 1884, 
lauglit school for 
light years and 
filled the position 
of Superintendent 
of Schools for six 
>-ears. He tutored 
liiniself in law'and 
was admitted to the 
liar in 1898. Mr. 
( "urtiss was elected 
ti) tlie Massachu- 
setts Legislature in 
1908 and was a 
member of the Committee on Metropolitan 
Affairs which framed the Boston Charter. 
He has been a Civil Service Commissioner 
since 1909 and is a member of the Masonic 
Fraternity, the Odd Fellows and the Wom- 
pateeck Club of Hingham, of which he was 
president for two years. His offices are at 
89 State Street. 

ARTHUR BLACK 

Arthur Black, attorney-at-Iaw, was born 
in Troy, N. Y., December 3, 1880. After 
a preparatory education he entered Harvard 
College for the classical course and .gradu- 
ated with the Class of 1903. He then 
entered the Harvard Law School and was 
the recipient of the LL.B. degree upon 
graduation in 1906. 

After admission to the Bar he began prac- 
tice in Boston and has remained here ever 
since. Mr. Black ])ractices independently, 
and the character of his legal work is of a 
general nature, specializing in no particular 
line. 

His offices are at 53 State Street and he 
resides in \\'inchester. 



MARK STONE 

Mark Stone, lawyer, 43 Tremont Street, 
was l)orn in Neumark, Prussia, August 8, 
1857, and brought to Boston when one and 
a half years of age. He was educated in 
the Boston elementarv grammar schools 
and English High School, being awarded 
the P'ranklin medal by the latter upon grad- 
uation in 1874. While acting as confiden- 
tial bookkeeper for a Boston house he 
studied law and was admitted to the Bar in 
1906. He is a member of the Masonic Fra- 
ternity, Odd Fellows, Royal Arcanum, For- 
esters of America, the Independent Order 
r]'nai B'rith, and is secretary of the Home 
for Jewish Children and secretary for the 
past fifteen years of Temple Ohahei Shalom. 

HERBERT S. AVERY 
Herbert S. Avery, who is the attorney in 
charge of the Boston Claim Department of 
the London Guarantee and Accident Co., 
Ltd., was born in 
Plymouth, Mass., 
September 15, 
1883. He was edu- 
cated at the Plym- 
outh High School. 
Bost<:)n L^niversitx 
College of Liberal 
Arts, and the Bos- 
ton LTniversity Law 
School. He was 
admitted to the liar 
August. 1909, and 
practiced with 
Dickson & Knowles 
from that time un- 
til 19 1 3, when he 
resigned to accept his present position. Pre- 
vious to taking up the study of law, Mr. 
Avery filled a clerkship with the N. E. Tele- 
phone & Telegraph Co., later becoming a 
stenographer for William Filene's Sons Co., 
and subsecjuently assistant superintendent of 
employees for the same firm. 




HERBERT S. AVERY 



Many historic spots throughout the city 
have been designated permanently by placing 
of bronze taljlets. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



W) 




FREDERICK MAXLi:\ I\ ES 

Frederick Mauley Jves, of tlie legal tirin 
(if I'.urdett, Wanlwell &• Ives, was born in 
Salem, Mass., January 5, 1880. His ])re- 

paratiiry educatiim 
was received in the 
jiuMic schddls of 
Salem, after which 
le entered Harsard 
L'niversity, and in 
11)11' won t h e 
" r.iiwdiiin I'rize " 
fur an essa}' im 
"Constitutional As- 
])ects of the Acqni- 
sitiiiii I if I'dreigii 
'l"erritiir\- l)v the 
Cnited States." lie 
was awarded the 
A.l'i. degree in H)or 

FREDERICK M. ,V.^ .^,,,, j,^ ', ,^^q . j,,..^,,j,_ 

ated from the Harvard Law School, LL.Il. 
Mr. Ives is a member (if the liar of Massa- 
chusetts, State and Federal Courts and of 
the United States Supreme Court. Fle has 
been principal!}' engaged in the trial of cases 
for the Edison Company of Boston and 
the Boston Elevated Railway. He has 
Feen Moderator of the town of Winchester 
for the past five years and is a member of 
the Harvard Club of Boston, the Boston 
City Club, Engineers Club antl the Massa- 
chusetts Club. 

FREU JUV 

Fred Joy is descended from an old Xew 
England family that settled here in 16,^5, 
liis first .\inerican ancestor being Thomas 
Joy, who was architect and builder of the 
F'~irst Town House, that stood on the site 
of the present Old State House. Mr. Joy 
■was born in Winchester, Jul_\- 8, 1859, and 
graduated from Harvard in ]88i. He 
studied law, and being admitted to the Bar 
in 1884 began jiractice in I'mston, where 
he has since been located. He had served 
as a Re])ublican in both branches of the 
State Legislature, and has been most suc- 
cessful along legal lines. He is a director 



of the Cutting lar Co.. the Cnited States 
F'a.stener Co., and other cor])orations, and 
a trustee of the Winchester Savings Bank. 
Mr. Joy holds membershij) in the Harvard 
Club of I'.oston and Xew ^'ork City and 
the I'niversitv Club of Boston. He resides 
at Winchester and his offices are at ()5 Milk 
Street, Boston. 



■raduated A.B. from 



The first crv for the protection of .\nier- 
ican industries was raised in Charlestown in 
1811 in connection with the manufacture of 
moroccan leatlier. 

S. HEXRY HOOFER 

S. Henr\- Hooper, law \er, was Ijorn in 
Boston, July 29, 1853, of old Xew luig- 
land ancestry. He 
Ilarvar(.l in 1873 
and from the Har- 
\ard Law School in 
]iSj8; was promi- 
nent in athletics in 
college and there- 
after. Fie has prac- 
ticed in B o s t o n 
since 1880 and was 
admitted to the 
U n i t e tl States 
Courts in 1882. Mr. 
Hooper has been 
identified with 
much imjiortant 
litigation in State 
and Federal Courts. 
He was president of lloojier. Lewis & Co., 
a corporation, from 1900 mitil ii)iJ, dur- 
ing which period he paid more attention 
to the stationery business than to law prac- 
tice. He compiled the list of l)ankrupts in 
the District of Massachusetts, August i, 
1898, to July 31, 1905. His clubs are the 
A^arsity (Harvard) and the Annisquam 
^'acht. Mr. Hooper married June 7, 18S8, 
Annie Heywood Lord of Boston. The\' 
have three children, viz. : Linzee Sewall, 
Dorothy and John Sewall IIoo])er. His 
offices are in Barristers Hall and his home 
in Hingham, Mass., at the old famih home- 
stead, "The Cirange." 




S. HEXRY HOOPER 



470 



THE BOOK OP' BOSTON 




GEORGE WTNSLOW WIGGIN 

George W. \\'iggin, attorney at law, was 
l)orn in Sandwich. N. H., March lo, 1841. 
He was educated in the puliHc schools, at 

the Friends Board- 
nig School, Provi- 
dence, R. I., and at 
the ]'hillii)S (Exe- 
ter ) Academy. He 
a fterwards read law 
;n the office of the 
1 Inn. Samuel War- 
ner, and was admit- 
ird to the Norfolk 
I Ounty Bar in 
i^j2. He began 
practice in Franklin 
a n d subsecjuently 
( )pened a Boston 
(,ffice, being at the 
ce:.rgi; «. wuu.in present time located 

in the Tremont Building. Mr. ^^'iggin is 
descended from Samuel W'insley, one of the 
first settlers of Salisbury, Mass. He was 
for ten years moderator of the town meet- 
ings in Franklin, and has officiated as com- 
missioner in many cases for the elimination 
of grade crossings. 

JEROME J. PASTENE 

Jerome J. Pastene, president of the As- 
sociation of Italian ^Members of the Massa- 
chusetts Bar, is attorney for some of the 

largest Italian firms 
in the United 
States and Italy 
and has many in- 
u-rests in Boston 
idmmercial con- 
cerns. He was Ijorn 
in this city Decem- 
ber 31, 1 87 1, and 
after a preparatory 
course entered the 
I loston University 
,aw School, from 
w hich he graduated 
_ , cum laude in 1897. 
^ I le was admitted to 
jEKOME J. pASTtNE tlic Bar thc same 




year. Mr. Pastene is interested in the P. 
Pastene & Compan\-, Incorporated, T. Dex- 
ter Johnson Co., tiie Talbot Avenue Auto 
Station, and W. H. Brayton Co. On De- 
cember 31, 191 1, ^Ir. Pastene was married 
to Florence I. Labelle of Boston. He is a 
thirty-second degree Mason, a member of 
the Cora Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S., the Royal 
Arcanum and the Boston Italian Club. His 
offices are at 18 Tremont Street. 

SAMUEL HALL WHITLEY 

Samuel H. Whitley, lawyer, was Ijorn 
Feliruary 15, 1881, at Plattslnirg, N. Y., 
the son of Samuel J. and Jennie (Hall) 
Whitley. He is a 
descendant of the 
Pa\'n f a m i 1 \- >■■ \ 
" Mayflower " ;ui- 
cestrv, and many 
of his ])rogenitors 
were soldiers in 
the Revolutionarx 
Army and figured 
prom i n e n 1 1 y in 
C o 1 o n i a 1 afi^airs. 
]\lr. Whitley was 
educated at Platts- 
burg High School, 
Brown Universitx, 
and graduated 
from the Harvard 
Law School in 1906 




SAMUEL H. WHITLEY 



He was admitted to 



the Bar the following year and began prac- 
tice at once, specializing in probate work 
and corporation investigation. He is a 
member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, 
Paul Revere Lodge of Masons, the Boston 
Scottish Society, and served three years in 
the Cadet Corps, M. V. M., and is now a 
memljer of the Veteran "Corps. His offices 
are at 15 Beacon Street. 

GEORGE FOX TUCKER 

George F. Tucker, lawyer and author, 
was born in New Bedford, Mass., January 
19, 1852, and was educated at the Friends 
Academy, New Bedford, the Friends 
School, Providence, and finally graduated 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



471 



from JJrtjwn University, Pruviilencc, in 
1873. After studying law and admission to 
the ]!ar, he began practice in New Bedford 
in 1876, removing to Boston in 1882. He 
has specialized largely in wills and corpora- 
tions, having written legal works on both 
sul)iects and collaboratetl with Dr. Wilson 
on International Law. He is also the author 
of a work on the ^lonroe Doctrine and a 
novel entitled "A (Juaker Home." !Mr. 
Tucker is of the seventh generation of 
Quakers in this country. He is an Inde- 
pendent Democrat in politics and was on the 
SchcKil Committee of New Bedford in 1881 
and a meiuber of the Massachusetts Legisla- 
ture in 1890-91 and \)2. He is a memljer of 
the Authors Club, and the R(i\al Societies 
Club of Londi.n. His ifhces are in Bar- 
risters Hall. 

HENRY T. RICHARDSON 

Henry T. Richardson, lawxer, was born 
in Chicago, 111., December 26, 1871. He 
was educated in the pulilic schools of ?\Ias- 

sachusetts, and was 
admitted to the 
Suffolk Bar in Jan- 
uarw 1893. begin- 
ning i)ractice at 
once. He has been 
in general practice 
since that date. Air. 
Richardson is a 
member of the Bos- 
ton Cit\- Club, a 
trustee and former 
president of the 
^Mercantile Library 
Association, mem- 
Ijer and one time 
])resident of the 
Boston Congregational Club, a meml)er of 
the American. Massachusetts and Norfolk 
Bar Associations and one of the Council of 
the latter. He is married and has five chil- 
dren. His offices are in the Kimball lliu'ld- 
ing, iS Trenmnt Street. He resides in 
Erookline. 




HENKV T. RICHARDSON 



SHI'.LDOX l'".. W \R1)\\ l-.Ll. 

Sheldon ¥.. W'ardwell, attorne\', was liorn 
at Haverhill, Mass., in 1882, and after jirej)- 
aration at St. Paul's School, Concortl, New 
Hampshire, he en- 
tered Yale and 
graduated with the 
degree of A.B. in 
1904. The Har- 
vard Law School 
conferred the 
LL.B. degree upon 
him at graduation 
in 1907, after 
which he went to 
AW'ishington as sec- 
retary to Hon. ^\■iI- 
liam H. M ood \- , 
Justice of the Su- 
preme Court of the 
United States. Re- 
turning to I'.oston in 1909, he became asso- 
ciated with the legal department of the Bos- 
ton Elevated Railway Co., and one vear 
later entered the office of Burdett, W'ard- 
well & Ives, of which his father, |. C)tis 
Wardwell, was a partner, and in i()i2 he 
became a member of that firm. He is a 
meml)er of the Massachusetts and Federal 
FJars, the ISoston Athletic Association, En- 
gineers, Harvard, Oakley and Country 
Clubs, the ^'ale Club of New York City, the 
^Metropolitan Club of Washington, D. C, 
and the Massachusetts Club. 




SHKI.DON E. WARDW hi.L 



When the first liar Association was 
formed is not known. It a])pears to have 
been dissolved some time between the dates 
of 1761 and 1767. In January, 1770, the 
second Bar Association was organized at a 
meeting of leading barristers and attorneys 
at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern. The rules 
of this association regulated admission to the 
I'.ar. ( )ne of the rules was that no member 
should receive a student in his office with- 
out the consent of the I'.ar. 'i"he present 
"Bar .Association of the City of Boston" was 
organized on June 10, 1876. 



472 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




AN ATTRACTIVE VIEW OF THE COURT OF THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY 



BUTLER ROLAND WILSON 



Butler R. Wilson, lawyer, was born in 
Atlanta, Ga.. July 22, i86r. He obtained 
the A.B. degree in 1881 and the A.M. in 

1884 from the At- 
lanta L^niversity, 
ami graduated 
LL.B. from the 
iloston University 
School of Law in 
1884. He was ad- 
mitted to the Suf- 
i"i ilk Bar the same 
\ car and has prac- 
iiced in Boston 
-nice with offices at 
S4 School Street. 
I le has been a Mas- 
ter in Chancery 
since 1901 and is a 
member of the 
American and Massachusetts Bar Associa- 
tions, the American National Red Cross 




BUTLER R. WILSON 



Association, director of the Boston Home 
for Aged Colored Women, secretary of the 
Boston Branch of the National Association 
for the Advancement of Colored People, 
secretary of Board of Directors of the Har- 
riet Tuliman House, member of the Speak- 
ers Committee of the Eord Hall Lecture 
Courses, member of the Executive Commit- 
tee of the South End Improvement Asso- 
ciation, an Odd Eellow and member of the 
Massachusetts Republican Club. 



Greater Boston is a big industrious hive; 
the core of New England ; one of the busiest 
factory districts of the Globe; a great trade 
and money centre and port ; conspicuously 
a city of piled-up wealth, financial means, 
and i)ower. It is the second American port 
and is next to New York as a Iianking centre. 
It is well named the "Hub." 



"HE BOOK OF BOSTON 



473 




JOSEPH P. FAGAN 

Joseph P. Fagan, who has since admis- 
sion to the Bar in 1899 1)een associated with 
James E. Cotter in the general practice of 

law, was born at 
Dedham, Mass., 
January i, 1878. 
He was educated 
at the public 
schools and at the 
E n g 1 i s h EI i g h 
Schoiil, afterwards 
entering the Boston 
L' n i V e r s i t y Law 
School, from which 
he received the 
EL.B. degree upon 
graduation in 1898. 
Since beginning 
practice he has been 
JOSEPH P. FAGAN eugagcd in impor- 

tant litigation, relating principally to cor- 
porate and commercial law. He is a direc- 
tor of the Coffin Valve Co., and is a memljer 
of the Boston City Club, Commonwealth 
Country Club, Young Men's Catholic As- 
sociation, and the Knights of Columbus. 
His office is in the Sears Building. 

EDWARD O. HOWARD 
Edward O. Howard, attorney, of 53 
State Street, was born March 11, 1852, at 
Winslow, Kennebec County, Maine. He 

attended the Water- 
ville Classical In- 
stitute, now Coburn 
Institute; Colby 
University, n o w 
Ciilb}- College, and 
Bowdoin Ci)llege, 
graduating f r o m 
the latter in 1874. 
He began the prac- 
tice of law in Fair- 
field, Me., in 1877, 
I)ut removed to Bos- 
ton in 1880, and has 
continued his legal 
work here since. 
EDWARD o. HOWARD Mt. Howard is de- 




scendetl from John Howard, who came 
from England about 1635 and settled at 
Bridgewater. On the maternal side he 
numbers among his forbears William Bas- 
sett, also from England, who settled at the 
same New England town in 1621. He is 
a member of the Dirigo Club of Dorchester 
and the Zeta Psi Fraternit\'. 



In the good old days of our grandfathers 
there used to be a great deal of hand weav- 
ing, but now that is all gone, and the clatter 
and rattle of textile machinery is to be heard 
within the walls of many a heavily Iniilt 
brick building in and around Boston. 

AUSTIN M. PINKHAM 

Austin M. Pinkham, of the legal firm of 
Pinkham, Chittenham & West, 27 State 
Street, was born in Gloucester, Mass., Oc- 
tober 2, 1871. He 
was educated at the 
Boston Latin 
School, Harvard 
College and the 
Boston Luiiversit} 
Law School. Upon 
graduation fro m 
the latter in 1897, 
he was admitted to 
the Bar and began 
practice at once. 
After practicing 
alone for several 
years he organized 
the present firm and 




is now engaged in 



AUSTIN M. PINKHAM 



corporation work, freciuently conducting 
cases in the Supreme Court of the various 
New England States. Mr. Pinkham is at- 
tornev for the American Express Co., mem- 
ber of the Boston City Club, Chamber of 
Commerce, and the Central and Clarendon 
Clubs. He is a member of the Board of 
Aldermen of Somerville, the Somerville 
Planning Board and of the Covmcil of Fifty 
of the City Planning Board of the State. 



474 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




LOUIS L. G. DE ROCHEMONT 



LOUIS L. G. DE ROCHEMONT 

Louis L. G. de Rochemont, lawyer, was 
born November 29, 1872, in Portsmouth, 
N. H. His education was received at the 

Portsmouth Hi g h 
School, Harvard 
College, and the 
Boston University 
Law School, his 
graduation fro m 
the last named in- 
stitution being in 
1894. After ad- 
mission to the Bar 
he took up the prac- 
tice of commercial 
and corporation 
law. He was a resi- 
dent of Chelsea at 
this ]) e r i o d and 
served that munici- 
pality as City Solicitor for eight years. Mr. 
de Rochemont is of French Huguenot an- 
cestry on the paternal side, and his maternal 
progenitor was a member of the Nutter 
family, who was one of the first settlers of 
the town of Newington. He is a member 
of the B. A. A., Boston Press Club, and the 
Calumet Club of Winchester. His offices 
are at 15 State Street. 

ARTHUR NOBLE RICE 

Arthur N. Rice, who in addition to legal 
work is interested in several commercial 
enterprises, was born in Boston, October 4, 
1878. He graduated from Harvard College 
in 1900 and from the Harvard Law School 
in 1904. After admission to the Suffolk 
Bar, he began practice alone in Boston, and 
has offices at 50 Congress Street. Mr. Rice 
has a clientele that includes individuals and 
corporations in both criminal and civil prac- 
tice. He comes of old New England ances- 
try, his grandfather having been the late 
ex-Governor Alexander Hamilton Rice of 
Massachusetts, while his maternal forbears 
also figured in the early history of the State. 

Mr. Rice is treasurer and director of the 
Albany Clay Products Co.,, president and 



director of the Monarch Pool Mining Co., 
and was formerly second vice-president and 
director of the Swift Contracting Company. 
He is a Repul)lican in politics and is con- 
nected with many organizations. Among 
these are the Massachusetts Bar Association, 
the Boston Bar Association, the Nevada 
Bar, Harvard Club of Boston, Harvard 
Club of New York, Society of Colonial 
Wars, the Tennis and Racquet Club of Bos- 
ton and the Delta Kappa Epilson Fraternity. 
He is unmarried and resides at 13 West 
Cedar Street, Boston. 



Boston Common, one of the greatest as- 
sets any city could have, is located in the 
very heart of the town. It is a solace to the 
eyes, feet and bodies of thousands every 
day. Its present extent is forty-eight and 
two-fifths acres. 

GEORGE L. DILLAWAY 

George L. Dillaway, lawyer, was born 
November 12, 1870, in Natick, Mass. After 
a preparatory education he graduated from 
Bowdoin College in 
1898 and from 
Harvard Law 
School in 1901. He 
is in active practice 
before the State and 
United States 
Courts. Mr. Dilla- 
way comes from 
old New England 
ancestry, being de- 
scended from Wil- 
liam Dillaway, who 
was a trooper in 
King Philip's War 
in 1675. ^J^r. Dilla- 
way is married and 
resides on Dillaway 
Mass. He is a member of the Converse 
Lodge, the Bear Hill Golf Club of Wake- 
field, the Order of the Eastern Star, the 
Wakefield Republican Town Committee, the 
Zeta Psi Fraternity, and has for a long time 
l^een a vestrvman of Emmanuel Episcopal 
Church, Wakefield. 




GEORGE L. DILLAWAY 



Street, Wakefield, 



THE BOOK Ol' BOSTON 



475 




VINCENT BROGNA 



VINCENT l',R()(;XA 

\'iiicent Brogna, legislator and lawyer, 
was l)orn in Italy, May 14, 1S87, and was 
educated in the pulilic schools, the English 

High School and 
the Boston Univer- 
sit\' Law School. 
He graduated cum 
laude from the lat- 
ter in 1908 with the 
LL.B. degree. He 
was admitted to the 
15ar previous to his 
graduation and has 
otiices in the Tre- 
mont Building. Mr. 
Brogna is a Demo- 
crat in politics and 
was a member of 
the Legislature in 
1912-13 and '14. 
He was again elected to the House in 19 16 
and is a member of the Judiciary Commit- 
tee. He was appointed a Master in Chan- 
cery by Governor Foss to succeed the late 
Judge Dewey, and is the youngest man ever 
appointed to that (piasi judicial positiim. 

WALTER BRUCE GRANT 

Walter B. Grant, who has attained a na- 
tional reputation in connection with his legal 
work, was born in Alilwaukee, Wisconsin, 
March 21, 1859. His preparatory education 
was received in the public schools of Derry, 
N. H., Lawrence, Mass., and Washington, 
D. C. He was principal of a school in Falls 
Church, Va., in 1881-1882, and then entered 
Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 
While pursuing his legal studies at the Co- 
lumbian College Law School he filled a law 
clerkship in the U. S. Pension Bureau and 
was legal adviser of Committees in the 5tith 
Congress. The University conferred upon 
him the degree of LL.B. in 1884, and of 
LL.M. in 1885. He was admitted to the 
Supreme Court of the District of Colum- 
bia. May 15, 1885, and to the Supreme 
Court of the L^nited States, January 28, 
1889. He removed to ALissachusetts two 



\ears later, and upon admission here took uj) 
the practice of his profession in Boston. In 
September, 1910, Mr. Grant was appointed 
counsel for the L^nited States in the Cha- 




WALTER B. GRANT 



mizal .Arbitration Case, which fi.xed the 
boundary line lietween the United States 
and Mexico under treaty between the two 
countries. Mr. Grant is president and di- 
rector of the American Tube Works, and is 
a member of the Masonic Fraternity, the 
Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, and of several 
clubs. He is descended from Peter Grant, 
who came to New England from Scotland 
in 1652, and settled in Boston and later in 
York Co., Me. His maternal forbears 
were Scotch-Irish, and were among the 
early settlers of Londt)nderrv, N. H. He 
was married August 28, 1889, to Lue E. 
Tripp. His offices are in the Old South 
Piuildinsj-. 



The first man in I'.oston who reallv called 
himself a lawyer was Thomas Lechford, 
who was educated for the B.ar in England. 

The lawyers of Boston today hold an en- 
\ialile position throughout the United States, 
and the civilized world. 



476 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



FRANK M. ZOTTOLI 



The descendant of an illustrious Italian 
ancestry, Frank M. Zottoli was born Sep- 
tember 20, 1872, in Serre di Persano, Prov- 




FRANK M. ZOTTOLI 



ince of Salerno, Italy. After a partial 
traininc^ in the elementary schools of his 
native land, he came to Boston with his 
parents and received his preparatory educa- 
tion in the public schools and the Latin High 
School of Boston. He then took up the 
study of law at the Boston University Law 
School and graduated in 1899 with the 
LL.B. degree. He was admitted to the Bar 
immediately after leaving the University 
and began practice at 27 Tremont Row in 
1900. His adaptability and unceasing en- 
ergy soon brought a large clientele, and in 
the years that have intervened he has de- 
fended twenty-five persons charged with 
homicide, of which number he succeeded in 
securing nineteen acquittals. Three of these 
cases were tried in other States, and in one of 
them the Chief Justice, Hon. L. A. Emery 



of the Supreme Court of the State of 
Maine, speaking of Mr. Zottoli said : "We 
have reason to be grateful to the eminent 
counsel who has come here from Boston 
to defend his compatriot, and for his labor, 
vigilance and faithfulness in the defence of 
this case." This unusual record fixed Mr. 
Zottoli's status as a criminal lawyer of more 
than ordinary ability. He does not, how- 
ever, confine himself to this class of work, 
having a general practice and appearing f re- 
cjuently in the civil courts and acting in nu- 
merous cases as counsellor. The energy 
that marks Mr. Zottoli's actions along legal 
lines is illustrated in two cases where the time 
record for speed was broken. One of these 
was the obtaining of a pardon for a client 
twenty minutes after the petition had been 
filed with Governor Foss, and the other was 
the securing of a divorce decree within 
twenty-four hours of its return day. Mr. 
Zottoli is a Democrat in politics, and was 
appointed Bail Commissioner of the County 
of Suffolk in 1906, still holding the office by 
reappointment of the Justices of the Su- 
perior Court. Mr. Zottoli's ancestors were 
all professional men. His paternal grand- 
father, Raffaele Zottoli, was Secretary of 
State when General Colleta was vice-King 
of Sicilv. The maternal branch is descended 
from the ancient Dell '/Vquila family, which 
owned and governed the Province of Bene- 
vento. Many of the male members of this 
illustrious family were magistrates and pro- 
fessional men, who figured pronnnently in 
politics and the social history of their coun- 
try. Some years ago Mr. Zottoli moved 
his private office to 240 Hanover Street, in 
a district where he has a large practice, 
which is by no means confined to his own 
countrymen, many English-speaking people 
being numbered among his clients. Mr. 
Zottoli was married in 1903 to Fillipa j\I. 
Nobile, and has one son, Anthony G. R. 
Zottoli. 



THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 



477 




HENRY E. HURLBURT. Jr. 
After being educated at St. Pauls School, 
Concord, N. H., Harvard University and 
Harvard Law School, and obtaining the 

A.B. and LL.B. de- 
grees from the last 
two named institu- 
tions, Henry F. 
Hurlburt, Jr., be- 
gan tlie practice of 
law September, 
1905, with the firm 
of Hurlburt, Jones 
& Cab(.>t, of whicli 
his father is seninr 
member, and was 
admitted to part- 
nerslii]) in Januar}-, 
191 1. H i s w o rk 
during his ten } ears 

HENRY F. HURLBURT. JR. r ,.• 1 1 

of practice has been 
the trial of causes defending various cor- 
porations and individuals, ]iri>ininent among 
which is the Bay State Street Raih\ay Co. 
Mr. Hurlburt is a member of the Harvard, 
Matigus, Wellesley Country and Railroad 
Clubs. His home is at Wellcsle}' Hills and 
his ofifices at 53 State Street. 

GEORGE L. :\rAYBERRY 
Born in Edgartown in 1859, George L. 
Mayberry received his preparatory educa- 
tion in the public schools of his birthplace, 

and after taking 
the classical course 
at Harvard entered 
the Boston Univer- 
sity Law School 
for legal training. 
He graduated from 
the Law School in 
JS85 ami was atl- 
mitted to the Bar 
the same year. He 
began practice in 
Boston and A\'al- 
tham and jjecame 
Citv Solicitor of 
the last-named city 

GEORGE I.. MAYBERRY f""'' y^^^^^S hltcr. 




and in 1891 was elected Alayor. He was 
reelected the following year and again in 
1898, 1899, and 1900. Mr. Majberry has 
handled some of the biggest law cases tried 
in the Commonwealth in recent years, and 
he is recognized as one of the leading cor- 
|)oration law\ers of the city. 



Benjamin Lynde was the first Massachu- 
setts Ijorn law\er to be regularly educated 
to the profession, and it has been asserted 
that he was the first trained lawyer on the 
bench. He was a])pointed a judge of the 
Superior Court of Judicature in 1712 and in 
1729 was made chief justice. He retired 
from the bench in 1745 and died in 1749. 

JOHN FREDERICK NEAL 

John F. Neal, lawyer, was born in Dover, 
N. H., September 21, 1874. He graduated 
from Harvard College in 1897 and from 
the Harvard Law 
School in 1900. His 
graduation from 
Harvard was ma,^- 
na cum laude with | 
the A.B. degree am 
he received honor- 1 
able mention for his 
proficiency in ])hi- 
losophy and his- 
torv. He has been 
actively engaged in 
general legal prac- 
tice since 1900. Mr. 
Neal comes from I 
Col(inial and Revo- 
lutionary ancestr)-, '""" ''■ '"'■'''■ 
his forbears being among the early settlers 
of Dover and Portsmouth, N. H. He is a 
member of the Masonic Fraternity, being 
Past Master of Mount Vernon Lodge, of 
Maiden, and associated with various bodies 
of the order. He also holds membership 
in the Bostcjn City Club and the Kernwood 
and University Clubs of Maiden. His 
offices are in the Tremont Building and he 
resides in Maiden, Mass. 




478 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




WILLIAM M. NOBLE 



WILLIAM M. NOBLE 
William M. Noble, senior memljer of the 
legal firm of Noble, Davis & Stone, 53 
State Street, was born at Springfield, Mass., 

February 27, 1865, 
and was educated 
at the Chelsea High 
School and spent a 
year in private 
study of classics 
after graduation. 
His legal studies 
were at the Boston 
University L a w 
School, from which 
he graduated LL.B. 
in 18S8. After ad- 
mission to the Bar 
he was for some 
lime in the office of 
Sherman L. Whip- 
ple, after which he began practice alone. 
He organized the present firm ten years 
ago, his associates being former employees. 
Mr. Noble's practice is general and he has 
been very successful. He is trustee of the 
Newton Centre Savings Bank, and a mem- 
ber of the Massachusetts, L^nited States and 
California Bar Associations. 

CHARLES A. McDONOUGH 
Charles A. McDonough, lawyer, was born 
ill Dcdiiam. Mass.. February 18, 1872, and 

was educated in the 
public scho(jls. He 
studied law with 
ludge Henry ^'\'. 
Bragg, with whom 
he has shared of- 
lices at 18 Tremont 
Street, since his ad- 
mission to the Bar, 
Vugust 8, 1893. 
His practice is a 
general one and he 
acts as counsel for 
a large number of 
commercial and 
manufacturing cor- 

CHARLES A. MCDONOUGH pOratlOHS. Lie IS 




deeply interested in historic and eco- 
nomic subjects and holds membership in the 
American Bar Association, Massachusetts 
Bar Association, Bar Association of the 
City of Boston, Bostonian Society (Life 
Member), Academy of Political Science, 
New York, American Economic Associa- 
tion, Boston Economic Clul) and the Bos- 
ton Citv Club. 



The first steps to organize a bank clearing 
house for Boston were taken in 1855. 



Boston is still the distributing centre of 
two great lines of industry — boots and shoes, 
and wool. The firms representing these 
lines refuse to }-ield Boston's supremacy. 

RALPH E, JOSLIN 

Ralph E. Joslin was born at Hudson Au- 
gust 26, 1864. He was educated in the public 
schools there and at Tufts College, which 
conferred the A.B. 
degree upon him inl 
1886. He after- 
wards entered the | 
Boston University 
Law School, from | 
which he graduated 
LL.B. in 1888, and 
supplemented h i s 
legal 



tramuig 



l)V 




reading law in tbi- 
office of his father. 
James T. Joslin. 
with whom he \\a> 
associated after 
being admitted to 
the Bar in 1889. '"''■"' ""■ ■'°^"^' 

Mr. Joslin comes of old New England an- 
cestry, both the i)aternal and maternal 
branches being established here in 1635. He 
is a member of the Theta Delta Chi and the 
Phi Beta Kappa Fraternities, the Calumet 
Clul) and the American, Massachusetts and 
Middlesex Bar Associations. He is a Mason 
and an Odd Fellow. He has been a resident 
of \\ iuchester since 1900. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTOX 



479 



HENRY FRANCIS Hl'RLBURT 

Henry F. Hurllnirt, lawyer, was horn in 
Boston June 29, 1854. He was educated 
in the schools of Hudson, Massachusetts, 

and Cornell Uni- 
versity. He studied 
law in the offices of 
I'lUrliank >.K; Lund, 
r.tistiin, and was 
admittetl to the Bar 
in iNjj, lies^innin;; 
practice in Lynn. 
1 le was District 
Attorney of Essex 
County from 1883 
until 1889 and in 
1897 removed to 
i '.I )Ston and f oriued 
a partnership with 
Bo)-d B. Jones, who 

HENRY F. HURLBURT ^^..^g ^^ ^J^^^f ^i,„p 

U. S. Attorne}- for Massachusetts. The firm 
subsecjuently became Hurlburt, Jones & 
Cabot, with offices at 53 State Street, and is 
engaged in general and corporate practice. 
Mr. Hurll)urt holds membership in the Al- 
gonquin Club, Beacon Society, Boston Art 
Club, Eastern ^'acht Club aiul Countr\- 
Club. 



in 1878, finishing his legal studies in the 
(iftice of Brooks, Ball & Storey. He was 
admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1879, and 
has been engaged in active ]iractice in Bos- 




Precisely as "Wall Street" or "Thread- 
needle Street" represents a power rather 
than a thoroughfare, so "State Street" is 
kufjwn to the world in a financial rather than 
a geogra])hical sense. It has become a s\no- 
n_\'m for financial Boston. 

JOHN TYLER WHEELWRKTIT 

John T. Wheelwright, who, in addition 
to his legal practice, has l)een active in the 
affairs of the State and City, was Imrn at 
Roxbury, February 20, 1856, the son of 
George William and Hannah Ci. (Tvler) 
Wheelwright. He was prepared for col- 
lege at the Roxbury Latin School and grad- 
uated from Harvard, with the A.B. degree, 
in 1876. He entered the Harvard Law 
School in September, J 877, in the second 
vear class and olitained the LL.l!. degree 




JOHN T. WHtELWRIGHT 

ton since that time, being now a member of 
the firm of Wheelwright & Codman, with 
offices at 19 Milk Street. Mr. Wheelwright 
has filled several non-elective offices. He 
was chairman of the Board of Gas and Elec- 
tric flight Coniniissii iners of Massachusetts 
in 1894, and from 1896 to 1900 was assist- 
ant corporation counsel of the City of Bos- 
tun. He was acting Park Commissioner of 
the city in 1897 and 1898 and, during Gov- 
ernor RusselFs term, was on the .staff of that 
official as quarter-master general, with the 
rank of colonel, and is now a member of 
the Council of the Massachusetts State De- 
l)artment of Health. Mr. Wheelwright is 
a directiir of the George W. Wheelwright 
Paper Co. lie was married (\-tober 19, 
1907, to Mabel (leL. Merriam, at Washing- 
ton, D. C, and has one son, Merriam Wheel- 
w right, who was born July 30, 1908. He 
resides at 14 West Cedar Street, Boston. 



480 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




HENRY C. SAWYER 



HENRY C. SAWYER 

A foremost interpreter of insurance law 
in New England is Henry C. Sawyer, of the 
legal firm of Sawyer, Hardy, Stone & Mor- 

r i s o n , who was 
born in Fitchburg, 
Mass., January 24, 
1878. He was edu- 
cated at the public 
schools and at the 
Boston University 
Law School, from 
which he graduated 
magna cum laude 
in 1899. He was 
admitted to the Bar 
the same year and 
was Assistant Dis- 
trict Attorney for 
the Northern Dis- 
trict from 1910 un- 
til 1912 and has been a professor of law in 
the Boston University Law School since 
191 1. He is counsel for the Employers' 
Liability Corporation, Ltd., the Zurich Gen- 
eral Accident & Liability Co.. the Fidelity 
& Casualty Company of New York, and the 
Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. He is 
a member of the Masonic Fraternity, the 
Lexington Country and Vesper Country 
Clubs, Yorick and Aurora Clubs, and the 
American, Boston, Massachusetts and Mid- 
dlesex Bar Associations. 

JOSEPH T. ZOTTOLI 

Joseph T. Zottoli, who has been very suc- 
cessful as a trial lawyer at the Suffolk 
County Bar, was born in Italy, September 
30, 1880, the son of Anthony L. and Car- 
mela (Del Aciuila) Zottoli. He was 
brought to Boston by his parents when quite 
small and was educated in the public schools 
and the Dorchester High School. Entering 
the Boston University Law School, he took 
the full legal course and graduated cum 
laude in 1903, with the LL.B. degree. He 
was admitted to the bar the same year and 
began practice Avith his brother, Frank M. 
Zottoli, at 2-] Tremont Row. This associa- 



tion continued until 1909, when Mr. Zottoli 
started alone at 43 Tremont Street, where 
he still has his offices. He is an active trial 
lawyer, and his practice is mostly criminal. 




JOSEPH T. ZOTTOLI 

Mr. Zottoli conies of a famil}- well known in 
the legal circles of Italy. His uncle, An- 
tonio Zottoli, ex-mayor of Salerno, is still 
practicing at the age of ninety years. He 
is a member of the Dorchester Club, the 
Savin Hill Yacht Club, the Independent 
Order of Red Men and the Knights of 
Pythias. He is a Republican in politics, but 
has never held office. Mr. Zottoli resides 
in Dorchester. 



Up to the end of the first quarter of the 
nineteenth century the business of Boston 
was almost entirely commercial in its char- 
acter. Its wealthy and successful merchants 
were shipowners and importers ; but at about 
that time the business of manufacture re- 
ceived an impetus, and those merchants who 
had been importers of merchandise from 
England, France and other European 
countries, began to enter upon the work of 
domestic production. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



481 




ARTHUR E. BURR 



ARTHUR ELLINGTON BURR 

Arthur E. Burr, attornev-at-law, was 
born in Boston, July 23, 1870. His prepara- 
tory education was at the Boston Latin 

School, after which 
he entered Har- 
vard. He gradu- 
ated ii: 1 891 with 
the degree of A.B., 
iiiai/ua cum huide, 
and i)l)tained his 
LL.B. from the 
Harvard L a \v 
School in 1894. He 
has practiced in 
Boston since and 
now has offices 
at 15 Congress 
Street. ^Mr. Burr 
was a member of 
the Massachusetts 
House of Repre- 
sentatives in 1915 and 1916, serving on 
the Judiciary and Election Laws Commit- 
tees. He is a member of the Massachusetts 
Bar Association, the Brae Burn Countr\-, 
City, University and Harvard Clubs of 
Boston, the Massachusetts Club, the Repub- 
lican Club of Massachusetts and the IMasonic 
Fraternity. He was married April 17, 1899, 
to Emily Frances Sturtevant of Hyde Park, 
Mass., and the\' have one son, Sturtevant 
Burr. 

WILFRED H. SMART 

\\'ilfred H. Smart, who is one of the 
successful younger members of the liar, 
was born in Dorchester, N. H., April 22, 
1883. His classical education was obtained 
at Dartmouth College and his legal training 
at the Harvard Law School. After com- 
pleting his studies, and admission to the 
Bar, he entered the law office of Powers & 
Hall, and after one year with those well- 
known attorneys, organized the legal firm of 
Smart & Burns, with offices at 8 Winter 
Street. Mr. Smart is secretary of the Bos- 
ton Alumni Association of Dartmouth Col- 
lesre and is a niemlier of the Dartnunitli and 



Harvard Clubs of Boston, the Middlesex 
Club and the Belmont Springs Country 
Liub. He was married at the end of his 
junior )ear in college to Rachel G. Smith, 
of Meredith, N. FI. 

J. WESTON ALLEN 

J. Weston Allen, lawyer and legislator, 
was born in Newton Flighlands, April 19, 
1872, the son of Walter Allen, formerly 

editor of the Bos- 

ton Adi'L-rtiscr. Mr. 
Allen graduated 
from Yale in 1893 
and from the Har- 
vard Law School 
in 1896. He has 
since been engaged 
in the practice of 
the law, during ten 
years in association 
with ex-Governor 
John D. Long. Fie 
has served as a 
member of the 
Board of Directors 
of Lasell Seminary, >■ "■'^"™^' '^'''■'=^' 

the Board of Trustees of the Roe Indian 
Institute, and vice-chairman of the Boston 
Indian Citizenship Committee. In 1912 he- 
was engaged in the investigation of land 
and timber frauds among the (Jjib\va\' In- 
dians and in 1913 he made an investigation 
of conditions among the Five Civilized 
Tribes in Oklahoma and the Navajos in 
New Mexico and Arizona. In 19 15 and 
1916 he was a member of the Massachusetts 
House of Representatives, in the latter year 
serving as a member of the special com- 
mittee of the Legislature ujion the consoli- 
dation of Commissions. 




The cit}"'s residential sections equal any 
in America and the handsome homes on 
Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon and Alarl- 
borough Streets, compare with those in anv 
of the exclusive localities of other cities- 
\\here wealth and culture congregate. 



482 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




JAMES L. PUTNAM 

James L. Putnam, of the legal firm of 
Putnam, Putnam & Bell, was bom in Cam- 
bridge, Mass., February 20, 1872. His 

preparatory educa- 
tion was at Noble's 
School, Boston, 
after which he en- 
tered Harvard Col- 
lege and graduated 
in the classical 
course, afterwards 
oljtaining the de- 
gree of LL.B. from 
the Harvard Law 
School. Upon ad- 
mission to the Bar 
he entered the of- 
fices of Russell & 
Putnam in 1895, 

JAMES L. PITNAM j^^J j-j^j Jjeej-^ QOU- 

nected with that firm and its successors 
since. The offices of the firm are at 60 
State Street, Boston, and 48 Wall Street, 
New York City. 



ARTHUR H. DAKIN 

Arthur H. Dakin, lawyer, was born in 
Freeport, Bl., April 27, 1862. He graduated 
from Amherst, A.B. in 1884, and received 

the A.M. degree in 
1887. He studied 
law at the Harvard 
University L a w 
School. In 1887 
he was admitted to 
ihe Bar and now 
practices at 6 Bea- 
con Street. His 
commercial c o n - 
nection includes the 
I guano Land and 
Mining Co. and the 
Menominee Water 
C o m p a n y. He 
holds membership 
in the L^niversity 
■Club of Boston, Universitv Club of New 




He has for vears 



York, Cosmos Club of Washington, D. C, 
Union Boat Club, Oakley Country Club, 
Boston City Club, Amherst Alumni Asso- 
ciation and the American Society of Arts 
and Sciences. He was married October 20, 
1903, to Emma Frances Sahler of New 
York, and has two sons. 

JEREML\H A. TWO:^IEY 

Jeremiah A. Twomey was born in Bos- 
ton June 9, 1865, and received his education 
in the public schools, 
lieen connected with 
the Bankers Life 
Insurance Co. of 
New York as an 
assistant manager, 
and with the Co- 
1 u m 1) i a National 
Life Insurance Co. 
of Massachusetts in 
the same capacity. 

Mr. Twomev has 
also been a Con- 
stable of the City 
of Boston for 
twelve years and is 
jiroprietor of the 
Massachusetts Constables Exchange, 47 
Court Street. He is a Democrat in politics 
and holds membership in the Knights of 
Columbus, Hibernians, Order of the Alham- 
lira, the American Legion and the Ninth 
Regiment, \'eteran Corps, ]\I. V. M. 




JEREMIAH A. TWOMKV 



ARTHUR H. DAKIN 




Paul's bridge at milton 



483 a 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



ELMER JARED BLISS 



Elmer Jared Bliss was born at Wrentham, 
Mass., August ii, 1867, and was educated 
at the public schools in Foxboro and Edgar- 




ELMER JARED BLISS 

town, Mass. After preparing for college at 
the Edgartown High School, he decided to 
go into business immediately, and entered 
the employ of Brown-Durell Co. of Boston, 
and went on the road as a salesman. While 
traveling in their interests, he was seriously 
injured in a railroad wreck, but, contrary to 
expectations, he recovered. The compensa- 
tion for his injuries, awarded him by the 
railroads, netted him $1,500, and gave him 
an opportunity to make a modest start in 
developing a new selling plan that would 
revolutionize shoe retailing, which he had 
clearh' worked out in his own mind during 
the period of convalescence. From that 
$1,500, and an idea, grew the Regal Shce 
Company. It started with a single store on 
Summer Street, Boston, in 1893, and spread 
throughout the country and the world, until, 
today, there are four Regal factories and 
more Regal stores and agencies than there 
were dollars in the original investment. 



Mr. Bliss' idea was to have a factory dupli- 
cate the styles he purchased of the most ex- 
clusive high-grade custom bootmakers in 
this country and abroad — and get them into 
the hands and on the feet of the consumer — - 
in the shortest possible time and at the least 
expense. Mr. Bliss foresaw that improved 
facilities in transportation would bring the 
consumer nearer the maker, and after per- 
manent outlets for distribution were estab- 
lished in the principal cities, the first national 
pulilicity campaign in the shoe liusiness was 
started in the magazines and metropolitan- 
dailies, which gave Mr. Bliss an opportunity 
to explain direct to the consumer the merit 
of the new plan and product. The force 
and originality of this campaign made his- 
tory in the shoe trade and Ijecame familiar 
to the public as the chain of stores increased. 
The origin, growth and development of the- 
Regal Shoe Company to its present enor- 
mous proportions of plant and product is a 
monument to the enterprise, ability and in- 
tegrity of the man who conceived the idea 
of selling direct from factory to foot, and 
duplicating- st}-les, at a moderate price, that 
were formerly considered the exclusive- 
property of the custom bootmakers. ]\Ir. 
Bliss, who is the chief executive and !Man- 
aging Director of the Company, although 
known as the "Human Dynamo" among his 
I)usiness associates for his tremendous ac- 
tivit\- and tireless energv, is the most modest 
and unassuming member of the entire staff. 
He shrinks from notoriety and dislikes per- 
sonal pulilicitv, and has repeatedly refused 
to all(.)w his name to lie used for any political 
office — state or national. Personally, ]\Ir. 
Bliss, though extremely quick mentally — in- 
stinctively so — is deliberate and polished in 
manner, quiet and affable in speech. He is 
as magnetic among his numerous friends as 
he is dynamic among his business associates. 
It is not to be supposed, however, that prac- 
tical business is all that interests ^Ir. Bliss. 
As is generally the case with great organ- 
izers, 7'c-rsatilitv is one of the qualities which 
enaliles him to understand and put to best use 
the a1)ility of others. He is equally fond of 
outdoor exercises and is as vigorous at play 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



483 b 



as he is strenuous at work — an enthusiastic 
horseman and yachtsman, and it is charac- 
teristic of the man that he rides his own 
horses and sails his own yachts, and always 
lieads for the deep sea or the woods, almost 
invariably accompanied l)y ]\Irs. Bliss and 
the children. In 1901, Mr. Bliss married 
Lena Harding, daughter of I'hilander and 
Lena (Tinker) Harding, a lineal descendant 
of Abraham and Elizabeth Harding, who 
landed at Salem, Massachusetts, on the good 
ship Abigail, in 1635. They have two chil- 
dren, Elmer Jared, Jr., and Muriel Harding. 
An interesting sidelight that reveals the 
character of the man occurred at the time 
of the earthquake in San Francisco. Mr. 
Bliss was en route to the Pacific Coast when 
he first heard that the fire had destroyed the 
entire city. His first thought was for the 
lielpless, homeless little ones. He stopped 
off at Los Angeles, bought all the available 
supplies, organized an expedition which he 
headed, and took them with him in auto- 
mobiles over the road to San Francisco. 
Mr. Bliss started the first movement to 
]irovide food and clothing for the babies 
in the stricken districts, .served with 
the local committees and took prompt 
action in telegraphing every Regal store in 
all the large cities to gather and forward 



food and supplies for the babies. Mr. Bliss 
has been president of the Massachusetts 
Society of Industrial Education and director 
of several large banking institutions. His 
genius for organization made his adminis- 
tration as president of the Boston Chamber 
of Commerce notaltle. A j^rominent mem- 
l)er of the Eastern Yacht Club, he won his 
laurels as a real sailor when he sailed his 
^•acht, Vcnona. to victor)- in the notable race 
from Marblehead to Bermuda in 1908 — • 
lashed to the wheel. He is a member of the 
Country Club of Brookline, Massachusetts, 
the Norfolk Hunt Club, the Algoncjuin Club, 
the Lotus and Mid-day Club of New York. 
yir. Bliss is a man of broad views, and 
widely read, and although starting in busi- 
ness after he had fitted for college, he has 
distinguished himself as a leader in educa- 
tive and civic affairs, and is one of the 
few prominent Ijusiness men who have been 
asked to lecture in the Harvard School of 
Business Administration. Active in public 
life, though never a candidate for public 
oftice, he gives without stint his practical co- 
operation in pul)lic aft'airs, proving the real 
virtue of broad and patriotic citizenship in 
making government more efiicient and 
effectual for the welfare of all. 








iSriS^^ 



A VIEW IN FRA.NKLIX PARK 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 



Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER XX 



HOW BOSTON IS FED 




A Remarkable Growth of Restaurants and General Catering Establlshments 
Has Made the City the First in the Country in Feeding Its Citi- 
zens — Many Hotels and Restaurants Illustrated 




H OSTON has long been cele- 
brated for good feeding. 
Its markets are uncom- 
monly well and choicely 
stocked. Food prices, per- 
haps, range somewhat 
higher than in other great centres of popu- 
lation, the city being farther from the 
sources of supply for many staples. But 
then the quality is higher. "Boston wants 
the best," it is said, "and is willing to pav 
for it." And can afford it, too, it might be 
added, since the wealth per capita and the 
average earning-capacity are greater here 
than in any other metropolitan city in the 
world. Dealers in meats in the West will 
tell you that the choicest cuts are invariably 
sent to Boston. A New England man who 
became a high official of one of the great 
railway systems of the Far West was once 
asked what things of the home land he 
missed the most. "Fresh fish and music," 
he replied, "and when I go to Boston I make 
it a point to indulge to the limit in both." 
Boston being the second fishing-port of the 
world and the great centre of the fresh-fish 
trade for the United States, no better place 
to indulge one's appetite for good fish could 
well be found in this country. The fish- 
trade is extraordinarily well organized for 
meeting the wants of the rest of the country 
from this point. The fastest freight-train 
in the world, running daily between Boston 
and New York, is known as the "fish- 
freight," or "Flying Fisherman," the bulk 
of its west-bound consignments consisting 
of fish from this market. 



Boston has the reputation of having the 
best popular restaurants in the United 
States — superior in food, service, and 
equipment. The proportion of showy es- 
tablishments for extravagant dining is small 
indeed as compared with New York. But 
the average of public eating-facilities ranks 
higher than elsewhere. As in other great 
cities, the high-class restaurant patronage 
largely goes to the great hotels, whose local 
trade often compares in importance with 
that from visiting guests. 

The cosmopolitan character of Boston's 
population is reflected in the numerous 
foreign restaurants, where the characteristic 
cooking of various countries may be en- 
joyed : German, French, Italian, Greek, 
Syrian, Armenian, and Chinese — not to 
mention the many where Hebrew characters 
at the entrance indicate that the orthodox 
requirements of Jewish immigrants from 
Russia and Poland may be satisfied within. 
The Bohemian, or semi-Bohemian, patron- 
age of the city largely goes to the Italian, 
French and German restaurants. Various 
standard dishes of the respective nationali- 
ties have met with such popular favor that 
the}- have become standard features of the 
menus of favorite native estalilishments, as 
well. Cosmopolitanism, indeed, has affected 
in no little degree the character of Boston's 
restaurant life. 

The local dishes of national reputation, 
such as Boston baked beans and brown 
bread, fish-balls, hulled corn, and "New 
England boiled dinner," are by no means so 
predominant as strangers may expect to find 



m 







4'4' 






. li 3 a 3 




COPLEY-PLAZA HOTEL, COPLEY SQUARE, OPPOSITE PUBLIC LIBRARY 




HOTEL SOMERSET, COMMONWEALTH AVENUE 



486 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



them. But they may be had in excellent 
quality. One local institution that includes 
New England in its name deserves mention 
as the uncommonly successful result of a 
great philanthropic organization of women 
to demonstrate the possibility of healthful 
cookery at moderate cost. Its restaurant at 
the old West End, in its simplicity and 
pleasant informality, has a social charm that 
might be called a Puritan Bohemianism. 



Ijasis of a cooked-meats business. Then 
there are the numerous "tea-rooms," cosy 
and artistic, with deliciously dainty menus 
of homelike character, as in refined families. 
These tea-rooms are largeh' the enter- 
prises of women : ladies of cultivation and 
skilled in dainty home cooking, who thus 
have found profitable vocational opportuni- 
ties. They might be called the twentieth 
century successors of such pleasantly re- 




y^ 



K^ 













CiJ 



I 




till 



HOTEL PURITAN, 390 COMMONWEALTH AVENUE 



This institution supplies the lunches for the 
Boston high schools. 

An establishment, with its high standard 
of culinary excellence, its air of unpreten- 
tious refinement, and its rigidly enforced 
"no-fee" rule, has been so successful as to 
have become the centre of an important 
chain of restaurants distributed over the city 
■ — its specialties in such wide favor that an 
important mail-order business has been built 
up with them. Other popular restaurants of 
high quality have been developed from a 



membered establishments as "Mrs. Vin- 
ton's," or the old-fashioned "Mrs. Haven's" 
on School Street, where Henry Wilson, 
Governor Rice, and other notables used to 
go for their frugal bowls of bread and milk; 
or later, "Mrs. Atkinson's" of Newspaper 
Row, out of whose profits two or three 
theatres were built. 

Finally there are the hundreds of quick- 
lunch places all over the city — their standard 
of quality and neatness well above the 
average of similar establishments elsewhere. 



L_ j^^AJ^trf^y fS r^'' "-'■^' ' ■ ""' - '("■UIV \ 



J^ 



».- - #«^ A ■ ■ ■ . .^ If ■■ 



■*~'- «*-»-■ »-• IW- te VVi- fc,w ^„- V^. 






( fc-«( kl.( kikll b. , Vv*ri, 



■'-//'/ ^' ' *■' ' *M *"'( ^'^\ ^' '^^*^'' 

►» Yk-« v-«= V •• V- ^^ r™ pj«=' r«- r*^ ^ 



— »WS.- r- r ■ r ■ r ■ r • r-*- » — /) 

^ ^^ ■ ~ ■ ' ■ '■ " !■ V li iittii inii) (I iTfllJL'':! dfi 'II, 





'.I, o i 



cr:ii| 

CI IB 
CI 1 'I 

cm 

cm' 111 

cut 



" ' 




nil; I rrip:i n fel 



n ! I ; ' r ■ ri r ■ rni 



r 



r 



1 1 1 n ! r'r ri n ^*- \t\\ \n 



II I 



III It 



II \ 

till I !' r« M H IL 



L 



Jlu liS^il^L liMk 

Jjf»' «5p.' i^|r*' 



<«? 




*H*ta!-jfrl/ M 



488 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



One of these, its name a household word, 
ahliough immensely profitable, has not been 
tempted to "branch out," but from a modest 
beginning has expanded to enormous dimen- 
sions on the spot : a marvel of organization — 
milk, coffee, etc., carried like water to every 
part in pipes of block tin. ]Most of these 
quick-lunch places are in "chain-systems," 
variousl}- designated: from "sandwich- 
depots" (an evolution from the old-time 



the oven. Every restaurant is thus kept free 
from kitchen odors. Remarkable economies 
result from purchasing for so many units 
all under one management. All middlemen 
are thus eliminated; supplies in huge quan- 
tities are bought on most favorable con- 
ditions direct from manufacturers and 
producers — foreign articles being directly 
imported from various parts of the world. 
These quick-lunch houses of various sorts, 




HOTEL BRUNSWICK, BOYLSTON STREET, FACING COPLEY SQUARE 



"beanery" ) to the "cafeteria" — with various 
devices for assuring the quick ' and eco- 
nomical service that makes for low cost and 
low prices. One of these quick-lunch sys- 
tems has twenty-five restaurants scattered 
throughout the city, besides others in other 
New England cities : Springfield, Worcester, 
Lynn, Lowell, etc., and one of the city's 
most successful caterers has recently in- 
vaded Canada with marked success. All 
baking and cooking for the chain is done in 
one great central establishment — two bak- 
ings a day, to assure pastry, etc., fresh from 



found on every hand in all parts of the 
city, are object-lessons in culinary neatness ; 
spotless white interiors, glittering with tile, 
tastefully and simply decorated, and ap- 
jietizing in aspect. 

Mention has lieen made elsewhere in this 
volume of the old-time hotels, where men 
of note met nightly and where the original 
clulj life of Boston was inaugurated and 
fostered. Most of these old houses have 
disappeared in the relentless march of im- 
provement, l)ut a few that still remain have 
kept alireast of the times antl, having lieen 



THE BOOK OF I'.OS'l'OX 



4sy 



modernized, favorably compare with tlie 
houses of later construction. Particularly 
is this the case with the Adams House on 



Washington Street. 



During the long years 



of its existence it has successfully met 
every changing condition and its interior 
and cuisine have al\va\s l)een of the best. 



class entertainment is the historic Revere 
House, which up to a little more than a 
quarter century ago was the place of en- 
tertainment of many famous men and 
W(jmen of the world. Of the hotels erected 
tluring the last decade, greater attention has 
been ])aid ti) architectural effect, and they 




AUAMS iioisi;. 



WASHINGTON STREEI 



The Llelle\ue, on lieacon Hill, atlmirablx' 
located, with a handsome dining-room and 
commodious lobby, is another of the older 
houses that has retained popularity, through 
good management. Still another old house 
that has preserved its reputation for first- 



ecpial in beauty antl appointment the lead- 
ing hotels in the largest cities of the coun- 
try. Most of these are located in the Back 
ISay district, where wide avenues and hand- 
some buildings make a beautiful environ- 
ment. The hotels in this section are: the 



490 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Copley-Plaza, an inipusing house on Copley 
Sfjuare ; the Hotel Puritan on Common- 
wealth Avenue, the Hotel Somerset on the 
same thoroughfare, the Hotel Brunswick 
on Boylston Street, facing Copley Square, 
the Oxford on Huntington Avenue, and 
the Canterbury on Charlesgate, West, the 
lessees of the last-named two also con- 



Like the hotels in the Back Bay and other 
of the districts of the city, it is conducted 
along the most approved lines. 

The Hotel Napoli, on Friend Street near 
Washington, makes a specialty of Italian 



cooking, and 



its large dining-rooms are 



crowded nightly with diners who come from 
ever\- section of the citw 




CASTLE SQUARE HOTEL EUROPEAN PLAN 

THREE BLOCKS FROM BACK BAY STATION FACING TREMONT, BERKELEY AND CHANDLER STREETS 



ducting the Hotel Nantasket at Nantasket 
Beach. The Hotel Victoria, at Dartmouth 
and Newbury Streets, is another of the 
newer hotels that is popular and well pat- 
ronized. Centrally located is the Castle 
Square Hotel, a commodious and well- 
ai)pointed house. Opposite the South Sta- 
tion is the Hotel Essex, which is most con- 
veniently located for incoming travelers. 



Many of the hotels in the Back Ba}- dis- 
trict are strictly family hotels, while others 
have both permanent and transient guests. 
The Hotel Somerset numbers some of the 
\\ealthiest families in the city among its per- 
manent patrons, and the Puritan, Brunswick 
and \'ictoria also cater to the same class. 
There is probably no city in the country 
where better accommodations are provided. 



THE ROOK OF BOSTON 



401 




.MARCIANO Dl PLSA 



ALFRED DI PESA 



Tlie Hotel Na])(ili, located at 84 Friend 
Street, is patronized 1)_\' I'.oston's most fasti- 
dicius diners. It has tun dining rooms with 
a seating- capacity of 600 and a specialty is 
made ni a daih" lunch, which the manage- 
ment claims is the higgest and best served 
in Boston tor the money. A iablc d'hote 
dinner is also served in the evening, and 
anything outside the regular dinner can be 
ordered a la carte. During the afternoon 
and evening jjopular and classic selections are 
rendered bv an excellent orchestra. Onlv the 



HOTEL NAPOLI 

Ijest fo.jdstuffs are served and the cuisine 
and service are perfect. The proprietors 



• f the Hotel Napoii are Afarciano Di Pesa 
and Alfred Hi Pesa, his son, both of whimi 
were Ixirn in Italy. The father was born 
in 1847, and came to P.oston in 1883. He 
was first engaged in commercial ])ursuits, 
afterwartls jjecoming proprietor of the old 
Hotel Italy in North Scpare. Twelve years 
ago he assumed charge of the Friend Street 
hotel, which was greatly run down. Good 
management and excellent service soon 





492 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



brought a large clientele, and it is now one 
of the best known and most popular dining 
resorts in the city. Alfred Di Pesa, junior 
member of M. Di Pesa & Son, was born in 
1877. He was educated in Boston schools 
and graduated from the New England Con- 
servatory of Music in the class of 1899, and 



then joined his father in the management of 
the hotel. The elder Di Pesa has the distinc- 
tion of being the only Italian postmaster 
ever appointed in New England, being thir- 
teen years in charge of the North End sub- 
station, which was discontinued when the 
large station on Hanover Street was built. 



THE HOTEL VICTORIA 




?5 





HOTEL VICTORIA 
IN THE HEART OF THE BACK BAY DISTRICT 

While the city is well provided with hotels 
and restaurants of all kinds, the Hotel Vic- 
toria has been especially noted, for many 
years, for the high-class character of its 
management and particularly for the excel- 
lence of its cuisine. Only the highest qual- 
ity of food is served in its cafe and private 
dining rooms, and this is one of the pre- 
dcminating features of the hotel. The em- 
ployees are courteous and willing and it 
would be hard to find better service in any of 
the larger hotels in the city. This fact is 
shown by the large number of business men, 
who, with their families, make their home in 
this hotel, where the managers do everything 
necessary to make hotel life as homelike as 
possible. It also caters to the commercial 
traveler and travelers in general, and every 
modern convenience possible has been in- 
stalled by the management for the comfort, 
pleasure and safety of its guests. 

As in all other branches of Inisiness in 
Boston, proprietors of hotels strive to outdo 
each other, with the result that Boston peo- 
ple and visitors to this city who are com- 



MAIN DliNING ROOM, HOTEL VICTORIA 

pelled to resort to hotel life receive a 
material advantage, and for the same reason 
the hostelries of this city have more than 
a local reputation, it extends world-wide. 

The Victoria, which has a quiet, refined 
and homelike atmosphere, is located at the 
corner of Dartmouth and Newbury Streets, 
in the heart of the Back Bay district, one 
Ijlock from Copley Square, neighboring the 
Pul)lic Library, Museum of Art, New Old 
South and Trinity Churches, the State 
House on Beacon Hill, Faneuil Hall, and 
all places of historical and of literary inter- 
est are easily reached, while the shopping 
and theatre districts are also within walking 
distance of the Hotel Victoria. 

It is conducted on the European plan and 
is very accessible for automobilists. 

Automobiles seating five and seven pas- 
sengers, with thoroughly reliable and com- 
petent drivers may be obtained by applying 
at the hotel office at any time of the day or 
night. Mr. Thomas O. Page is the hotel 
manager and treasurer of the Hotel \^ictoria 
Company. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



493 



The Jlutel Xantasket is lucated at the 
Nantasket Beach Reservation on the South 
Shore — a charming- summer resort of over 
twenty-five acres. The hotel is controlled 
In' the Metropolitan Park Commission and 
is leased to and managed by Messrs. Stearns 








HOTEL CA.NILKBUKY, CHARLESGATE WEST 

The much talked of Fenway is one 
of the most admired features of Boston, 
and it is in this attractive section that 
the H(itel Canterbury is located, on 
Charlesgate \\'est. The hotel is ad- 
miral)l\' ci inducted and has been very 
successful from the day of its opening 
al)out twelve \ears ago. 



HOTEL NANTASKET, NANTASKET BEACH, MASS. 

and Pretto. It is a splendid sea-side hos- 
telry with a dining room that seats about 
one thousand persons. Nantasket Beach 
is famous for its fine bathing facilities and 
is easily accessible from Boston by either 
train or steamboat. 



The Hotel Oxford, 46 Huntington 
Avenue, is pleasantly located in one of the 
m(«t desiraiile, artistic sections of Boston. 
It is but a step from the hotel to the Pul)lic 
Library, Copley Square and Trinity Church. 
The Back Bay station of the New York, 
New Haven and Hartford Railroad is just 
around the corner, and trolley lines radiate 
in all directions from Huntington Avenue. 




MOTEL OXFORD, 46 HUNTINGTON AVENUE 



494 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 




CAPTAIN RODEN S. HARRISON 

Captain Roden S. Harrison, the present 
proprietor of the historic Revere Honse, 
was born in Tottenham, England, the third 
son of Reverend David J- Harrison, rector 
of Liulgvan, Cornwall, England. He as- 
sumed the lease of the Revere House in No- 
vember, 1906, and immediately inaugurated 
a policy of progressive- 
ness that has once more 
made the old hotel a 
popular resort. He made 
many changes and im- 
provements in the in- 
terior of the liuilding, 
among which is the Per- 
gola, a dining room crea- 
tion that is most popular 
and pleasing. It rejire- 
sents a forest of massive 
trees with clinging vines 
and refreshing foliage, 
\\ith backgrounds of 
paintings of woodland 
scenery. Four fountains 
with concealed lights give 
the room a most fairylike 
appearance. The Revere 



CAPTAIN RODEN S. HARRISON 

House has been a famous resort for over 
three-quarters of a century, and has enter- 
tained some of the most eminent men and 
women of the last century. These included 
Daniel Welister, the Prince of W'ales, Grand 
Duke Alexis, Jenny Lind, Patti, Parepa, 
Christine Nelson, King Kalakawa, Empercr 
Dom Pedro, General Grant, while President, 
and many other notables. Captain Harrison 
is very fond of all out-door pursuits. He 
is a devoted equestrian, and is owner of the 
Rodendale Farm, at South Billerica, Mass., 

the raising of thor- 
He has one of the finest 
herd of Ayrshire cattle in the country and, 
in addition to propagating this strain, raises 
thoroughbred Berkshire pigs and high-class 
hackney and coach horses. He is the owner 
of "King Jo," a handsome dark mahcigany 
bay stallion that has won many blue ribbons 
at various shows throughout the different 
states, in competition with some of the best 
horses in the country. Captain Harrison 
resides at ^Vinthrop Highlands. 



which is given over tc 
oughbred stock. 



The paper mill Avas until very recent 
years found almost wholly in New England 
where it is still the dominant factor in the 
])aper business. 




THE REVERE HOUSE 



TllK I'.OOK OF BOSTON' 



405 



ARTHUR P. 

Anhur P. Pearce, surviving mem1)er of 
the tirin of A. Tomfohrde & L'".. conducting 
the cafe and restaurant, 45 to 51 ("ourt 




ARTHUR P. PEARCE 

Street, was l.)orn in (iernianw Marcli 28. 
187 1. He was brought to Boston in in- 
fancv. 1)y his parents, and was eckicated in 
the pu1)lic schools here. At the age of 
eleven \'ears he entered the enii)loy of his 
two brothers, who conducted a grocery and 
])rovision store in Sotith Boston, under the 
firm name of Pearce Brothers. He saved 
enough from his earnings to buy a third in- 
terest ill this firm and successively' bought 
the shares of his hnithers until he became 
sole proprietor of the store. On November 
2, 1898, he was married to Caroline M., 
only daughter of the late A. Tomfohrde, and 
sold his business in South Bnston in urder 
to become associated in business with his 
father-in-law in the business which he now 
owns and manages. In 1907, Mr. Tom- 
fohrde admitted ]\Ir. Pearce to partnership. 
This ])artnership continued until the time of 
Mr. Tcmfohrde's death, September 18, 
1910, when, under tlie terms of the will, Mr. 



PEARCE 

Pearce became trustee of the estate and 
owner of the business. He is a direct<ir of 
the Fidelity Trust Co., and the Massachu- 
setts Real Estate Exchange, a member of 
the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- 
pany, Boston Chamber of Commerce, Bos- 
tonian Society, president of the New' 
England Lutheran Society and a member 
of several automobile clubs. Mr. Pearce has. 
two children, Madeline 1)., and Arthur P. 
Pearce, Jr. His home is at Jamaica Plain. 
The Cafe Tomfohrde, one of the oldest., 
largest, most centrall_\- located and Ijest ap- 
pointed in the city, was established in 1868.. 
bv the late A. Tomfohrde. The original lo- 
cation was on the site nnw' occtipied by 
Young's Hotel. In 1870. he removed the 
business, which was only a small lunch room 
at that time, to the basement of the build- 
ing. 45 Court Street. In a few years the 
trade grew tn such an extent that he pur- 
chased the building and transferred the 
liusiness to the ground floor. Eventually 
the buildings from 45 to 51 Court Street 
were required and occupied by the steadily 
growing business. Mr. Tomfohrde was a 
man of rare discernment and foresight. He 
realized the !ocalit\- was bound to increase 




TOMFDHKDE CAFE 

largelv in value, .and. in addition to the 
Iniildings occui)ie(l by the cafe, he jnir- 
cliased the Minot Puilding adjoining, and 



4^6 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



property in other sections of the city, the 
estate's holdings now being assessed at ap- 
proximately $1,500,000. 

In April, 1912, Mr. Pearce entirely re- 
modelled the exterior and interior of 
the buildings and has now one of the 
largest and most complete restaurants 
for ladies and gentlemen in the city. 
It was the lioast of the founder of 
the business that the cuisine of his res- 
taurant could not be excelled, and this 
feature of the business still predominates. 
The foods served are the best that can 
be purchased, and are bought by Mr. Pearce 
personally, who insists that everything must 
be up to, or beyond, the standard. The 
dining-rooms are large and airy, richly dec- 
orated, and the service is the best, while an 
orchestra of skilled musicians renders clas- 
sical and popular selections. The kitchens 
are conducted along the latest improved 



sanitary lines and are presided over by a 
chef of note and a corps of trained assist- 
ants. Over a half hundred people are em- 
ployed in the preparation and serving of the 
well-cooked and carefully-selected foods. 
The wine cellar, which is nearly as large 
as the iloor space of the buildings, is stocked 
with wines of the rarest and oldest vintage, 
and the largest stock of whiskies and 
brandies, in bulk and bottle, in the city, is 
carried. A Rathskellar is located in the 
basement, where patrons who do not care 
for music and more elaborate service are 
served with the same cjuality of foodstuffs 
and beverages that may be obtained as 
promptly as in the larger dining-room up- 
stairs. All these features make the Cafe 
Tomforhde one of the most popular resorts 
of the city, where the diner can pass an 
afternoon or evening under the most enter- 
taining and homelike conditions. 



THE FLOYD LUNCH COMPANY 




SUMMER STREET, BOSTON, SHOWING THE SOUTH STATION AND THE LOCATION OF 
TWO OF THE FLOYD LUNCH COMPANY'S RESTAURANTS 



The Flo}d Lunch Company, which con- 
ducts a chain of high-class restaurants and 
lunch rooms, is noted for the excellence of 
its cuisine and the qualit)^ of the foodstuffs 
served. The business is under the direct 
supervision of J. A. Floyd, president of the 
company, who has had wide experience in 
the restaurant field. The dining-rooms are 
located at 639 Atlantic Avenue, 675 Atlantic 



Avenue, 353 Congress Street, 608 Tremont 
Street, 16 Pearl Street and 168 Summer 
Street. All are fitted up along the latest 
improved sanitary lines. The kitchens are 
absolutely clean and the service is quick 
and satisfactory. These features make the 
Floyd Lunch Co. popular with both tran- 
sients and permanent patrons, and have been 
instrumental in the company's success. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



497 



11-: WALTON LUXCH SYSTEM 




DAVID H 



Tlie \\'alt(_)n Lunch S_\steni was estali- 
lished in 1903 by David H. Walton, its 
president and general manager, and the 
business has grown from one small store 
to a chain of handsome, mudernly-equipped 
and absolutely sanitary restaurants. The 
Boston stores are located at Nos. 242 and 
424 Treniont Street, 629 and 1083 Wash- 
ington Street, 7 School Street, 42 Federal 
Street, 44 Summer Street. Two branches 
are maintained in Montreal, Canada, one 
being located at 259 St. James Street and 
the other at Peel and St. Catherine Streets. 
The executive offices of the system are lo- 
cated at 10S3 Washington Street and the 
Ijakery and kitchen at 616 Waterford Street. 
Mr. Walton's one aim in the conduct of his 
business is to make every one of the stores, 
bakery and supply kitchen absolutely hy- 
gienic. Cleanliness has been his watch- 
word, and this, coupled with the fact that 
the highest grade of foodstuffs are pur- 
chased, has brought deserved popularity to 
the Walton System. Everything in the way 
of approved sanitation has been adopted in 
the Walton Lunch rooms. Tile has su|)er- 
seded wood and has left no sj^ot for dirt 



WALTON 

or vermin to collect. The eiuployees of the 
bakery and stores wear spotless white uni- 
forms, and they are cautioned that they can 
only hold their positions by thorough clean- 
liness and polite attention to the patrons. 
Mr. \\'alton has been engaged in the restau- 
rant Inisiness his entire lifetime, beginning 
as a boy in the kitchen and gaining practi- 
cal experience l)y work in every department 
of the Ijusiness. He was born in Canaan, 
King's County, Nova Scotia, in 1874, where 
he attended the public schools, previous to 
coming to Boston. He .subse([uently took 
a three years" course at the New England 
Conservatory of !Music antl three years at 
Boston High, antl after school, working 
for ten years in some of the best bakeries, 
restaurants and hotels, started in business 
for himself. Mr. Walton gives personal 
attention to the chain of restaurants bear- 
ing his name, and keeps in touch with the 
best markets through a well-organized pur- 
chasing department, made possible by his 
long and varied experience. Mr. AValton is 
a member of the Masonic F'raternity, a di- 
rector of the b'idelity Trust Co., and a mem- 
l)er of the Boston Chamlicr of Commerce. 




THE EXECUTIVE OFFICES OF THE UALToN LUNCH SYSTEM, lUSj WASHINGTON STREET 




THE WALTON LUNCH ROOM AT 1083 WASHINGTON STREET 




rut WALTON BAK1;RV, llJSj WASHINGTON STREET 




A WALTON Ll'XCH ROOM AT 242 TREMONT STREET 





ir THE NEXT GENERATION \\ 



FOUR GENERATIONS OF THE MARSTON FAMILY WHICH HAS BUILT UP THE 
BEST-KNOWN RESTAURANT BUSINESS IN NEW ENGLAND 



THE HOOK 01-- HOSroX 



50! 



Tin-: .MARSTON 

The Marstiiii rt-staurants and lunclienn 
ri>iinis, wliicli owe their great success t<> the 
trachtiniial idea of cuhivated service, well- 
cooked, delectable tOnds and an envirdnnient 
of quiet and refinement, were fminded in 
1847 by the late Ca])tain Marstim. He had 
been a sailor in early life, but, becoming 
tired of the sea, became a partner of a man 
named Berry, in an eating house then con- 
ducted in a little shanty "on the dock side" 
of Commercial Street, near the old Balti- 
more Packet Pier. The place had a seating 
ca])acity of fifteen people. In 1S48, ]Mr. 
Perr\- sold his interest to .\lmon Sampson, 
the firm becoming Marston & Sampson, the 
little eating place meantime having gained 
a reputation for absolute cleanliness and 
wholesiime, 1 ild-fashii nied cooking. A Imild- 
ing was erected for them in 1849 on Com- 
mercial Street with a seating capacity of 
sixty. Four years later a branch was estab- 
lished at 13 f^rattle Street, and George P. 
Marston, an elder brother of tiie founder, 
became a jiartner. The business was re- 
moved to 2" P>rattle Street in Decenil)er, 
1854, and has been conducted there since 
that time. In 1835, circumstances com- 
pelled the relinquishment of the Commercial 
Street restaurant, and the entire business 
was consolidated at 27 Brattle Street. 
George P. Alarston retired from the firm 
in 1866, Captain Russell Marston conduct- 
ing the business alone until 1870, when 
Howard Marston, his son, and Joshua 
Backus were admitted to partnership under 
the firm name of R. Marston & Co. One 
year later Mr. Backus retired, and the busi- 
ness was carried on by father and son until 
Captain Marston's death in 1907, when 
Howard Marston became sole proprietor. 
The business was incorporated February, 
1913, when his son, .Shirley Marston, be- 
came associated with the management. In 
1857, the store at 25 Ilrattle Street was con- 
nected, and 29 was added in 1881. In 1893, 
two floors of the building. 17 and _>i Han- 
over -Street, were made part of the immense 



RESTAURANTS 

restaurant and the Brattle Street dining 
room was enlarged. In 1895, a part of 33 
Hanover Street was added, and a women's 
luncheon was established. This was popu- 
lar from the start and now has a seating 
capacity of two hundred and fifty. In 1903, 
a branch was opened in the JeiYerson Build- 
ing, 564 Washington Street, with a rear 
entrance on Harrison Avenue, which is 
open from 11 A.^f. until 3 p.m. Another 
branch \\as opened at 121 Summer Street 
in 1905, and the restaurant at 81 Devon- 
shire Street was opened to the public in 
1910: this, like the Washington Street 
branch is open from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. 
In all these restaurants an air of quiet and 
refinement is noticeable. They are all hand- 
S'lmelv iitted up and the l)est food onlv is 
served, with scruinilous cleanliness and at a 
fair price. In 19 12, the Company, by the 
nnrchase of Imildings on Purchase and Hisrh 
Streets, increased the size of their food 
manufacturing plant until now it is one of 
the largest in New England, and their cele- 
brated products are handled under the luost 
sanitary conditions. Sales counters for 
food to carry home are established in all 
their ])laces, and a special department for 
sending parcel post orders has been opened 
at 165 High .Street, where also, is located 
their most recentl}' titted up luncheon 
room for men and women. To meet the 
requirements of many patrons in the vicin- 
ity of the Subway Station at Massachusetts 
.\venue, a restaurant was opened in 1914 
at 1070 Boylston Street, and at 1302 Beacon 
.Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, a small 
shop has been recently opened for the sale 
of their food products. Every branch of 
the Marston equipment is as perfect as 
modern hygienic construction can make it, 
and the management spares no expense that 
will bring to the guests the best and most 
cleanly oI)tainal)le. It is this liberalit}- that 
has made ".Marston's" famous, not alone in 
Boston, but throughout the whole of New 
England. 



502 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



COBB'S LUNCH DEPARTMENTS 



CoblVs lunch departments, which had 
their origin a qnarter of a century ago with 
the estaljHshment of Cobb's Spa at 107 




CHARLES M. LITTLE 
PRESIDENT COBb's LUNCH DEPARTMENTS 

Court Street, have so grown in popularit_y 
that they are now the best patronized in the 
Scollay Scjuare district. Rapidly increasing 
business necessitated additional space, and 
large and correctly appointed dining rooms 



were estaljlished at 75 Court Street, with 
additional entrances at 83 and 85 Cornhill 
and 8 Brattle Street. A lousiness men's 
lunch was also located at the last address. 
The main dining rooms have a seating capac- 
ity of two hundred and twenty-five, and are 
located on the second floor. They are in 
charge of competent foreladies and assist- 
ants, and a large menu, consisting of all 
varieties of foods, is provided, both read\- 
to serve and cooked to order. The dining- 
rooms are open for breakfast, dinner and 
supper, and many specialties are arranged. 
The business men's lunch is the largest in- 
dividual, cpiick service luncheim counter in 
Boston. Many prominent business and pro- 
fessional men are numbered among the regu- 
lar patrons. Large cjuantities of wholesome 
and nutritious foods are al\va}-s on hand, 
and the quickest service in the city is guar- 
anteed. The Spa, at 107 Court Street, is the 
pioneer quick service lunch counter of Bos- 
ton, and it was here that Cobb's lunch de- 
partments originated. At the main dining 
room there is a ladies' parlor or rest room 
provided with every modern convenience. 
A smoking and wash room has also been 
provided for the gentlemen patrons. The 
main kitchen, where all foods are prepared 
and later distributed to the various dining 




MAIN DINING ROOM, COBB S RESTAURANT 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



503 



rooms and lunclieon counters, is in charge 
of a competent chef, who has been in tliis 
department for many }ears. He thoroughly 





0^ 

1 




« 


^^^H 


W 


1^ 




^H^ J 


i 


fi 





COBB S BUSINESS MEN S LUNCH 

understands the art of blending foods that 
gives them a flavor of home cooking, and 
only the best materials that the market af- 
fords are used. The pantry room, from 
which all orders are distributed to guests, 
contains the best ecjuipment that can be pro- 
vided for containing all foods to be served. 
The baking department is located on the top 
floor of the building. Pure food and good 
ventilation add immeasurably to its sanitary 
environment. Pies, puddings, and other 
pastry, are made from the firm's own 
recipes, antl all the mincemeat is prepared 
on the premises, while the green apples, 
])um[)kins, squashes and other vegetables 
are brought direct from the farm. A 
high horse i)ower motor, with a capacity 
of displacing thirty thousand culiic inches 
of air a minute, is used to keep the 
kitchen perfectly ventilated. Gas is em- 
ployed exclusively for cooking purposes, 
thereby eliminating all dust and ashes. 
The kitchen floor is of concrete, and the 
w^alls are brick with a plastered ceiling. All 
orders are sent from the dining room by 
the pressing of a button through an annun- 
ciator system, thus securing speed and ac- 
curacy. r<i])])'s lunch departments are 
operated b\- the C. M. Little Compan\-, of 
which C. M. Little is president. Ilefore the 
organization of the C. AL Little Co., Mr. 
Little had been cnnnccted with the business 



for twenty years. Air. Little was born in 
Concordia, Cloud County, Kansas, Febru- 
ary 19, 1872. Lie was brought up on a 
farm in Alaine, and was educated in the 
pul)lic schools. He came to Boston in 1896 
and was made night manager of the Spa 
shortly after it was opened. He worked in 
the various departments, and after familiar- 
izing himself with the kitchen, bakcrv and 
dining rooms, became general manager of 
the system. Fie held this position until the 
C. AL Little Co. Avas incorporated, when he 
became president, a position he still retains. 
Air. Little's untiring efforts to please have 
])laced him at the head of the most popular 
restaurants in Bostijn. His ancestry is 
among the oldest in New England, and he 
is a member of the Alasonic fraternitv, the 
( )(ld Fellows and the Ancient and Honor- 
able Artillery Co. He was married in Sep- 
tember, 1893, to Alertie A. Spearing of 
(juilford, Alaine, and has two daughters, 
Thelma S. and Helen C. Little. His home 
is in Revere, where he is a member of the 
Citv Ctiuncil. 



The reputation of the hotels and restau- 
rants of Boston has become world-wide. 
It would l>e hard to lind better service in any 
city in the country. They have been the 
favorite meeting-places for social, patriotic 
and ]iolitical organizations, and manv fa- 
mous men have been entertained at banquets 
held in their dining halls. 

HARRY S. KELSEY 

Harry S. Kelsey, organizer and jiresident 
of the Kelsey Co., which operates the Wal- 
dorf Lunch system, was born in Claremont, 
N. H., Alarch 26, 1879. Fie was educated 
in the public schools and at the W'esleyan 
Academy, beginning his business career in 
Springfield, Mass., in 1904. From one 
small establishment. Air. Kelsey expanded 
the business rapidly, and Inially organized 
the Kelsey Co., of which he became presi- 
dent and Samuel L. Bickford, vice-presi- 
dent. 1"he executive offices of the com- 
])any are at 44 Bromfield Street, and it \v\\\ 
ri])crates a chain of sixty lunch rue mis 



504 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



through New England. Twenty-three of 
these are located in Boston and Cambridge 
and are popular for the quality of food 




HARRY S. KELSEY 



served and the sanitary arrangement of the 
dining-rooms and kitchens. A complete 
baking plant and laundry are maintained, 
and in Itoth of these necessary apartments 
absolute cleanliness prevails. Mr. Kelsey is 
a thirtv-second degree Mason and a member 
of the Shrine, the Boston City Club, Belfry 
Club, Lexington, and several other social 
organizations. He is heavily interested in 
real estate in Springfield and in Boston and 
has ,a farm at Lexington which he conducts 
along scientific lines, and maintains a herd 
of choice imported cattle. He is very proud 
of his agricultural achievements and finds 
relaxation from his many business cares by 
getting "back to the soil." 

SPAL'LDING'S SYSTEM 

The lunch and restaurant business car- 
ried on under the name of Spaulding's 
System was established fourteen years ago 
by Dana E. Spaulding. Mr. Spaulding was 
born in Maine and was educated in that 
State. Deciding to enter business for him- 



self, he came to Boston, and with no knowl- 
edge whatever of the preparation or pur- 
chase of foods, started his first lunch at 228 
Tremont Street. He met with almost im- 
mediate success, and from this modest be- 
ginning soon had several restaurants in 
different parts of the city, eventually selling 
all but two, and to these he gives his per- 
sonal attention. They are located at 1024 
Boylston Street and 329 Massachusetts 
Avenue. These are both models of elegance 
and sanitation, the Massachusetts Avenue 
rooms being more ornately decorated, and 
of later establishment. Mr. Spaulding, 
personally, superintends the kitchen, where 
the best foods purchasable are prejiared. 
Special attention is paid to all details, and 
the fact that both restaurants have a large 
female clientele is a guarantee of cleanli- 
ness, good cooking and pleasant and re- 
fined surroundings. The bvisiness done by 
Spaulding's System is large and steadily 
At the noonday and evening 




DANA E. SPAULDING 



hours both restaurants are crowded, many 
residents in the neighborhood dining there 
regularly. 



THE ROOK OF BOSTON 



505 



COBB'S TEA COMPANY 

The coffee and tea rooms at tlie corner of 
Cornhill and Court Streets is one of the 
city's unique institutions. It was estab- 
lished in 1883 in connection with the retail 
store, where the highest grades of tea and 
coffee are handled, and has developed into 
one of the most popular and best patronized 
resorts in the city. A branch, conducted 
along the same lines, has recently been estalj- 
lished at ioqa Summer Street. In speaking 
of the original character of the coft'ee antl 
tea rooms, a patron recently said: "It's the 
only place in the country where a lady can 
stand at the bar and order a drink with the 
utmost propriety." Stanley W. Ferguson 
is general manager of the company's busi- 
ness and David T. Kingston, store man- 
ager, with Claude R. Tabor as assistant. 



M. F. COTTRELL COMPANY 

One of the Ijest-appointed down-town 
restaurants is that known as Cottrell's Res- 
taurant at 19 Exchange Street, immediately 
oft' State Street, and in the heart of the 
financial district. The president of the M. 
F. Cottrell Co. is :\Iillard F. Cottrell, who 
was born in Belfast, Maine, I'ehruary 26, 
1 85 1. U]ion the com])letion of his school- 
ing he followed the sea for twenty years and 
then came to Boston and started an eating- 
house on Niirth Market Street. His suc- 
cess led to the leasing of the present build- 
ing, which has a frontage of 65 feet, and 
it was fitted up with every modern appliance 
under Mr. Cottrell's supervision, the first 
and second floors and basement being oc- 
cupied as a dining-room, kitchen and for 
storage purposes. Everything has Mr. Cot- 
trell's personal attention. 




COBB S TEA ROOM 



^06 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



HIRAAI RICKER & SONS 
The Late Hiram Ricker and the Modest Beginnin'gs of the Ricker Interests 




^^ , I ! ! »TT1 i jf' 



-; ■"*«*:,.. ; 



MANSION HOUSE. 1797 





■^1? 
'':^' 



THE LATE HIRAM RICKER 



THE SPRING, 1795 



Many of the favorite resorts of Boston 
people are located in that wonderful sum- 
mer land — Maine. Rest, recreation and 
pleasure are lieing sought in that delightful 
climate of pure air and clear skies by a 
greater number of people each year, and 
now that the curative waters at Poland 
Spring have been so firmly established, that 
charming resort has much to offer. 

Poland Spring and the House of Ricker 
make a strong appeal to me for I have in 
mind one the pleasantest journeys of my 
life when, some twenty years ago, I was 
called there to "write them up," and tlie 
years which have intervened since that time 
have only confirmed what was then written. 
I find at that time the following sentence 
which contained fact and prophecy then, and 
Avhich is being reduced to facts only toda>'. 
"The Rickers of Poland Spring, now world 
famous, have Ijuilt up their great business 
interests from Lilliputian beginnings, and 
have covered their noble ancestral hill — the 
forest farm of a century ago — with the 
magnificent structure which indeed l)ecomes 
it 'as a crown l^cometh a king's head.' 
Sturdv, rugged, New England stock, inljred 
in the soil, hard-working, persistent, ener- 
getic, alert, enterprising. The extension of 
Poland Spring will go steadily on, while the 
water continues its beneficial work ; and in 
the fullness of time when the control falls 
into the hands of the sons of Hiram Ricker's 
Sons, it will have become indeed a noble in- 



heritance, a monument of sturdy enterprise 
and sagacity." Brieily that is the secret of 
the commercial side of this world envelop- 
ing business, founded upon the sturdy in- 
tegrity of its pioneers and maintained by 
the enterprise and sagacity of this wonder- 
ful famil\-. 

To mv kniiwledge the proprietors of no 
similar Ijusiness in America, or the world in 
fact, can trace so perfect a lineage as that 
of the present firm of Hiram Ricker's Sons. 
The Ricker family descends from the feudal 
and knightly Riccars of Saxony down 
through the years to Jabez Ricker, who was 
the first of the name to occupy this present 
site. This was in 1794, and he in turn was 
succeeded by his son, Wentworth Ricker — 
the "Wentworth" being a family name 
handed down through the generations, and 
he in turn gave over to the late Hiram 
Ricker whose name has become world fa- 
mous, and who was the father of the present 
generation. Hiram Ricker was born No- 
vember 17, 1809, and attained the ripe and 
honored age of eighty-four. 

Hiram Ricker was the discoverer of the 
curative cjualities of the Crystal Spring. 
His name will be long remembered by the 
thousands who visit the resort each year. 

The superb hotels and recreation resorts 
that now add fame to the name of Ricker, 
and the Poland Water which finds a market 
in almost every corner of the glolie, are held 
in great favor bv Bostonians. 



TT{E l^^OOK Ol" P,()S'I"()X 



507 



(iKORCE ir. WALKER 




GEORl.E H. WALKER 



President of the Walker-Gordon Laboratory Co., 

1106 Boylston Street, and the Walker 

Lithograph & Publishing Co., 

.Wb to 402 Newbiirv Street 



George II. Walker estahli.-^hed l)u>ine.ss 
headquarters at Eo.ston in 1878 and founded 
and developed the two companies of which 
lie is now president. \\'alker-Gordon Milk 
Lahoraliiries ami depot are ulcerated in Bos- 
ton, New York, Philadelphia, lialtimore, 
Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Washington, 
Lrooklyn, Atlantic City, Jer.sey City, Lake- 
wood, Princeton. Trenton, West I-lnd, and 
London, England. 

\\'alker-Gor(lon Alilk is alwaxs pro- 
duced from cows ownetl and cared for l.)y 
this company. It is clean, safe, uniform and 
unchanged. AX'alker-Gordon ^Modified Milk 
is one of many thousands of coml)ina- 
tions of milk constituents alwa\s made 
from \\'alker-(rordtin Milk on ph\-sicians' 
prescriptions onlv. 

The Walker Lithograph & I'uhlishing Co. 
is fully equipi)ed with modern machinery 
for all kinds of printing. Mr. Walker is 
now erecting a fireproof building, 388 to 
394 Xewhury Street, to i)rovi(le for the in- 
creasing demands on the pulilishing plant. 







WALKER-CORDON LABORATORY CO. 



Farms in New Jersey, 2200 acres, half way between New York and Philadelphia, where Walker-Gordon Milk 

is produced for delivery in .New York, Philadeli>hia, and the New Jersey shore resorts. 

Princeton College Buildings and Carnegie Lake showing in the distance 



SOcS 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



FRANCIS S. 

The dairy business conducted by Francis 
S. Cummings in West Somerville, which has 
grown to large proportions under his per- 




SILAS L. CUMMINGS 
WHO ESTABLISHED THE CUMMINGS DAIRY IN 1872 

sonal supervision, was established in 1872 
by his father, Silas L. Cummings, in East 
Lexington. Francis S. Cummings was born 
in Lexington, June i, 1880, and after at- 
tending the public schools. High School and 
a business college, became associated with 
his father in 1900. The Inisiness was re- 
moved to Davis Square, and the father dving 
in 1909, Mr. Cummings assumed full con- 
trol of the plant. One wagon was ade- 
quate for delivery in 1872 and when the 
founder died, four were being used. At the 
present time 15 wagons and two trucks are 
necessar}-, and this large increase is directly 
the result of Mr. Cumming's personal ef- 
forts. Outgrowing his old quarters, he 
erected a commodious plant at 534 Boston 
Avenue, opposite Tufts College station, in 
191 5, and installed the most modern appa- 



CUMMINGS 

ratus for scientific sterilization and the 
handling of the product along approved 
hygienic lines. Mr. Cummings obtains his 
milk from White Mountain farms, one of 
the best milk producing sections in New 
England, noted for its fine grass, good spring 
water and germless air. The milk comes to 
the Tufts College plant by the fastest trains 
on the B. & M. Railroad, which insures abso- 
lutely pure milk to the consumer. Mr. Cum- 
mings is a Mason, belonging to the Somer- 
ville Blue Lodge, Chapter, Council and the 
Coeur de Lion Commandery of Charlestown. 
He also holds membership in the Aleppo 
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., and the Odd Fel- 
lows fraternity. He is treasurer of the Lan- 
caster Milk Co., organized to secure fast 
service in the transportation of milk from 
producing centres to distribution plants. 
Mr. Cummings is of old New England an- 



cestr\-, 



being descended from Isaac Cum- 



mings, the founder of the family in Amer- 
ica, who settled at Iiiswich in 1630. 




FRANCIS S. CUMMINGS 
PRESENT OWNER OF THE CUMMINGS DAIRY 



THE BOOK OF IK)STOX 



509 




DAIRY AND PAjT LL KIZINo PLAN I Ml- hKA.NCls 



New England is the great paper-manu- 
facturing district, and Boston is the office 
and seHing centre for most of the big con- 
cerns in that Inisiness in the Northeast. The 
city also has a very heavy jobbing trade, 
with sales all over the United States. Ex- 
porting is carried on to some extent, too, 
particularly to England. Some of the larg- 
est firms in the United States, making fine 
book and plate paper are in Boston, and 
many people are employed in this industry. 

It is only natural that Boston, which has 
so long held enn'nent place in the intellectual 
progress of the countr}-, should be promi- 
nently engaged in the publishing of school 
books. It is, in fact, one of the greatest 
centres of that business in the Union, and 
in the publishing of books for the higher 
grades Boston certainly leads at the present 
time. 



The pre-eminence that Boston has ob- 
tained in the business of publishing and sell- 
ing books, is the natural result of having 




OLD SHIP CHURCH AT HINCHAM, BUILT 1680 
ON ROUTE OF THE BAY STATE STREET RAILWAY' 

within and arnund her bnundaries, men 
whose names stanil at the head of the au- 
thors of America. Boston's publications, 
both book and periodical, have from the 
early d.ays of the first settlement been among 
the foremost in the countrv. 



510 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



H. P. HOOD & SONS 



Any work attempting t(i show Boston's 
progress, in the last half century, would be 
incomplete without reference to the efforts 
of H. P. Hood & Sons to give the city a 
"germless milk." As conceded by scien- 
tists, the cow is a producer of bacilli, and 



The business of H. P. Hood & Sons was 
founded by H. P. Hood, who nearly a 
quarter of a century ago collected milk in 
Derry, New Hampshire, and shipped it to 
Boston dealers. The output was about a 
carload a day and the product of an indiffer- 




FOUNDER AND PRESENT OFFICERS OF H. P. HOOD & SONS 



milk an effective germ carrier, contributing 
largely to adult ailments and infantile mor- 
tality. By the "Hood method," as per- 
fected by seventy years of scientific research, 
the danger lurking in this household neces- 
sity has been eliminated and the work of 
the city's inspectors made easy. 



ent character, there being no scientific super- 
vision at that time. Despite the founder's 
limited capital, the business developed rap- 
idly, and with the increase came a deter- 
mination to improve quality, with the result 
that the intervening years have been narked 
by "Hood's" leadership in every movement 



THE lU")OK OF BOSTON 



51 T 



to obtain pnrity. Tlie work of improve- 
ment was slow and toilsome. It began with 
the physical examination of the cow, the 
feed antl tlie care in the pasture ami the 
provision made for winter keep. The clean- 
liness of stable and stalls was also consid- 
ered, and only choice farms, rich in pastur- 
age and notable for good healthy stock, 
were selected for the supply. Then labora- 
tories were established where methodical 
testing was done, and the Hood company 
became the pioneers in making bacteriologi- 
cal and chemical tests — methods that have 
since been adopted by every progressive city 
in the country. It was the first company to 
adopt a thorough system of cleaning, scour- 
ing and sterilizing cans, bottles and all other 
receptacles, and also the first tn use the 
hygienic carrier, which is filled and capped 
by automatic machinery and goes into the 
home absolutely clean and free from jxillu- 
tion. When scientists discovered that milk 
was ofttimes laden with Ijacteria and pro- 
duced epidemics oi t\phoid and scarlet 
fever, "Hood's" met the situation Ijy in- 
stalling a complete pasteurizing plant, and 
this method is always used in treating its 
products without extra cost to the consumer. 
Every measure has been taken to safeguard 
the public. The Hood stations, which are 
models of cleanliness, are always open to the 
public for inspection and the salesmen are 
awarded premiums for personal tidiness and 
habits and for the care of the horses and 
wagons used in the delivery service. The 
company also organized a shareholding plan 
for employees. The stock, with a par value 
of ten dollars, has voting power and is re- 
deemable at an increase of twenty-five per 
cent, in case of the death of the holder. 
The organization has a council made up of 
representative route salesmen fmm the vari- 
ous stations and three members selected 
by the company. The Council meets each 
month for the adjustment of matters af- 
fecting the employees and the corporation. 
Its findings are submitted t(j the Board of 
Directors for final action. 

H. P. Hood & Sons have been awarded 
nineteen certificates of (|uality at difi^erent 



dair\nien's exhil)iti<)ns for excellence of 
milk, cream and butter jjroduced and 
handled. The officers of the company, un- 
(juesti<inal)ly the largest producers and dis- 
tributors of certified milk in New England, 
are Charles H. Hood, president and treas- 
urer, Edward J- Hood, vice-president, and 
Gilbert H. Hood, secretary. The ofiices and 
plant are located at 494 Rutherford Avenue, 
Boston. 



One hundred million pounds of fish are 
handled in Boston every year. The industry 
employs thousands of persons and in\nlves 
millions of dollars per annum. 

ALBERT OILMAN BARBER 

Albert G. Barl)er, ])resident of the Globe 
Optical Co. and treasurer of the Globe Ear- 
phone Co., both of which he founded, was 
born at Epping, N. 
H., July 18, 1857, 
and was educated 
at E p ]) i n g an d 
Athol, Mass., grad- 
uating from the 
High School in 
1873. After learn- 
ing the optical busi- 
ness y\r. Barljer 
opened a wholesale 
house in Boston in 
1889, and his vari- 
ous enterprises ha\'e 
grown from this 
beginning. Mr. 
Barber is of old 
New England ancestry, the American 
branch of the family being established at 
Dover, N. H., about 1650, by Robert Bar- 
ber. He is a member of the Masonic Fra- 
ternity, the Methodist Social Union, and is 
chairman of the Selectmen of North Read- 
in"-, where he resides. 




ALBERT G. BARBER 



The first bank in America was established 
in Boston. It began a three years' course 
in 1686, and loaned money on real and per- 
sonal estate and imperishable merchandise^ 



512 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



BOSTON, REVERE BEACH & LYNN R. R. 



One of the greatest factors in the de- 
velopment of the suburban sections lying 
contiguous to Boston, is the Boston, Revere 
Beach & Lynn R. R. The company operates 
less than fourteen miles of road on its Lynn 
and Winthrop lines, yet it touches twenty 
residential sections which the company has 
made populous by efficient service and low 
rates. The road is narrow gauge and this 
makes for economy in operation ; as cars 
and locomotives are lighter a longer life to 
rails and bridges is assured. 

The president of the company is Melvin 
O. Adams, and the superintendent is John 
A. Fenno. These officials are constantly 
planning improvements that will insure 
economv and efficiencv and the road is there- 
fore an example of intense growth and a 
specimen of railroad operation that war- 
rants close study. 

At a meeting of the Massachusetts Public 
Service Commission, at which a question of 



consolidation arose, residents along the line 
requested that the "Narrow Gauge" should 
not be compelled to enter any consolidation 
and should not be permitted to do so. They 
stated that they were content with the serv- 
ice and did not want to risk the loss of 
its present efficiency. This request is the 
strongest testimonial ever given to the 
management of a railroad in this country. 
The terminals, ticket offices and rolling 
stock of the company are kept in the best of 
condition and everything possible is done 
for the comfort of its patrons. The com- 
pany's generosity and fair dealing are at- 
tested by the absence of strikes, the long 
years of service of many employees and the 
fact that wages have on several occasions 
Ijeen voluntarily raised. 

The company also operates the Point 
Shirley Street Railway which gives Win- 
throp a good local service. 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 



Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 




CHAPTER XXI 

BOSTON'S FISHING INDUSTRY 

Tracing the Growth and Denelopment of a Great Source of New England's 

Wealth — Contrasts and Changes in Handling the Products of the Sea — 

The New England Fish Company 

B\' Frederick Roche 




INCE to Boston belongs 
the honor of having been 
the first fishing port of the 
United States, it is but fit- 
ting that Boston today 
should take her place as 
the greatest fishing port in the world. Long 
before she was known for the proverl)ial 
baked beans, Boston was famed for her 
sacred codfish. The development of her 
fisheries has been somewhat slower than 
that of her other industries, for although 
the city and State have enjoyed their grow- 
ing prosperity, they have done little to aid 
in their advancement. 

To find the beginning of this, from a 
lavman's point of view perhaps the most 
interesting of all Boston's industries, one 
must go back almost into the age of fable. 
In those remote times when the redskin was 
the sole citizen of the city, the Indian 
doubtless caught cod and haddock in Bos- 
ton Bay and traded it with his fellows for 
tobacco and corn. At any rate there is no 
question that the earliest settlers did so, 
and fish was one of the principal foods of 
their tables. 

Cargoes of cod and haddock, caught not 
so very far out in tiie l)ay, were shipped to 
England. Exactly when fisliing l)egan to 
be a recognized trade in the Hub is one of 
the many points which history has neg- 
lected to clironicle. Very early, indeed, 
however, numerous fishermen used to hook 



fish from small l)oats off Nahant, and 
bring them to the docks at Charlestown, 
where they were offered for sale. 

In these da\s the fisherman was also the 
fish merchant. After catching the fish, he 
sold them at retail from his craft. In win- 
ter he carted his wares a short distance into 
the country, peddling them from house to 
house in a hand cart, and occasiijnally in 
warm weather he carted salted fish a1)out 
in the same manner. All manner of fish 
were plentiful, and as the men did not have 
to go out of sight of land to catch them, 
small boats were used entirely. 

Finally, however, local shore waters 
ceased to give up so abundant a supply, and 
oliliged to seek further aseas, the men began 
to use larger boats. The scjuare-nosed lug- 
ger, slow but safe, became the type of ves- 
sel most in use, and the fishermen started 
to frequent Jeffries Bank, ]\Iiddlebank, 
Georges Banks, and the South Channel, 
grounds which have continued fertile to the 
present day. 

Boston really l)egan as the centre of the 
fresh fish trade in 1835, when for the first 
time in its history a wholesale fish house was 
opened here. The store, owned by Hol- 
brook. Smith & Co.. was opened on Long 
\Miarf, and thither the adventurous spirits 
who had invested in vessels, and dared the 
elements to venture further afloat than the 
edges of the har1)or, l)rought their catches 
for sale. 



514 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Ice was not used in connection with the 
industry, and fish continued to be sold 
fresli in winter and salt in suninier. The 
lone wholesale firm did a thriving business, 
however, and it was not long before it had 
a competitor. Moving to a wooden shack 
on Commercial Wharf in 1838, the firm 
soon found itself surrounded by a number 
of other concerns. 

Isaac Rich, who began life as a peddler 
of salt fish and ended as a millionaire, and 
others, came into the business. Frequently 
they cast longing glances at the great stone 
structure on the pier. At this time, how- 
ever, the fine big warehouse was deemetl 
far too good for the fish business, and their 
glances were cast in vain. 

Competition increasing to the point where 
time was money, the dealers, each wishing 
to be on hand to outbid the (ither when a 
trip of fish came in, slept on the wharf, and 
lantern in hand made several trips nighth' 
down to the end of the pier, to scan the har- 
bor in search of a sail. 

Statisticians of these times had other 
things to figure about than the number of 
craft in the fishing fleet or the size and 
value of their catches. On the other hand 
men today engaged in the fish business can 
remember back to these days on Commer- 
cial Wharf and bear negative evidence to 
the effect that sometimes weeks went by 
withotit any fish at all coming in. 

Cramped for room in the row of wooden 
shacks, the dealers came together in 1884,. 
and, despite the keen competition which 
existed between them, managed to remain 
harmonious long enough to form an or- 
ganization to lease T \Miarf. 

Grave were the doubts as to the success 
of so great a venture, and many the pessi- 
mists who predicted failure in ^y varieties. 
John Burns bid for the first store on the 
pier and got it. New buildings were erected 
to suit the needs of the fish dealers, and 
still trembling at their own daring they 
moved. They remained there f(.)r thirty 
years, and instead of failing grew until they 
outgrew their "palatial" cjua.rters once more. 
T Wharf became known from one end of 



the land to the other as the great fresh fish 
pier of the country. It was one of Boston's 
shfjw places, although, it must be confessed, 
not always a sight for the gods. 

The fishing fleet grew larger, and the tj'pe 
of vessel most in use became the swift 
schooner. Thomas F. McWanus, the yacht 
designer, and others, put their brains to 
work, and the result was the present type 
of knockabout, built like a fine private yacht. 
Of late years auxiliary gasoline engines 
have l)een placed in most of the boats. 

^Vhile the type of vessel has changed, and 
the type oi fisherman, too. for todav in- 
stead of the native of New England or the 
young Irish immigrant, it is men from the 
British Maritime Provinces and the Azores 
and Italy who catch our fish, there has been 
suprisingly little change in the methods of 
fishing. 

That daring adventurer, the fisherman, 
still leaves his vessel, in a dory, to set his 
man}-hooked trawl line, and he is as care- 
less of his life today as were his ancestors 
of years ago. A few vessels have adopted 
the scheme of fishing with a single line hung 
over the vessel's cjuarter. and in mackerel- 
ing, of course, .the seine is used. But 
ground fishing is stilldone in the way of the 
ancients. 

In 1905 the Bay State Fishing Company 
put into operation here ■ the first of what 
has developed into a good-sized fleet of 
steam trawlers, a vessel previously confined 
to the European fisheries. Fishing with a 
huge' heavy net which is operated by ma- 
chinery to sweep the sea and gather up 
everything including vegetation and tin 
cans, this mode of fishing is far less dan- 
gerous than that used Iiy the ordinary men. 
Its introduction met with a storm of protest 
from the "regular" fishermen. It has 
proven a success financially, however, and 
seems doomed to stay with us. 

IMeantime the most important change 
effected in the wholesale fish business had 
taken place on T Wharf, when in 1908 the 
following dealers held a meeting and or- 
ganized the New England Fish Exchange : 
John R. Neal, Benjamin F. Rich, Christo- 



THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 



.■^l,-> 



pher J. Whitman, William J. O'Brien, 
.Vlhert E. Watts. Maurice P. Shaw, Her- 
bert F. Phillips. John Burns, Jr., Francis J. 
O'Hara, Jr., Alvin G. Baker, aiul Albert 
F. Henry. 

Up to this time the fish ])ri>ught t<i ])iirt 
had been b(>UL;'ht from the skippers at the 
capiog of the pier, the bu_\ers shouting their 
bids to the incoming boat. The individual 
dealers i)aid when they gut around U> it, 
and the skipper delivered his fare hap- 
hazard. 

The I'^xchangc, under the management of 
^^'illiam K. Beardsle\-, an .\lban\' Pailmad 



Wharf. J Jul the wharf could not be niatle 
any larger and not much cleaner. The 
Board of Health objected to the old pier, 
and finally things reached the point where 
either the dealers must find a new site or 
give up the fish business. 

Cooperating with the Conunonwealtli, the 
dealers formed the Boston Fish Market 
Corporation, and undertook to build under 
the super\-ision of State engineers, at South 
Boston, next to the Commonwealth Pier, 
the biggest and most sanitary fish pier in 
the world. Jn ]\larch. 1014, the\' moved 
into their new quarters. 




BOSTON FISH PIKK 



man. changed all this, reducing chaos to 
system. ]>idding was done, as it is done to- 
day, within specified hours on the floor of 
the Exchange. The skipper gets his money 
from the Exchange the minute he accepts 
the bid, and the dealer is guaranteed that he 
will get the fish he bought in the condition 
contracted for. Thus the Exchange put the 
relations between the wholesaler and the 
fisherman on a business basis. 

The Boston Wholesale Fish Dealers' 
Credit Association, organized through Mr. 
Beardsley a few years later, has placed the 
dealings of the retailers and wholesalers 011 
the same sound basis. 

Business continued to increase at T 



I'igures are tiresome. Let it lie enough 
that the pier is an entire city in itself. At 
the end stands the Administration Build- 
ing, where the Exchange and commission 
dealers have offices. Up the pier from this 
in two long parallel rows are the wholesale 
fish stores. They are each three stories 
high, of uniform red brick with stone trim- 
mings. Thev are finished inside with con- 
crete floors and water pipes, and each is 
equipped with a special fire hose outfit, 
which is used nightly to flush out every inch 
of the place. 

A broad avenue in the centre of the pier, 
between the rows of stores, is reserved for 
teruning, while the <iutside spaces between 



516 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



the stores and the caplogs are used for un- 
loading the fish. Cleanliness is the order of 
the day, and a couple of special policemen 
see that the order is carried out. 

At the head of the pier is the giant plant 
of the Commonwealth Ice and Cold Storage 
Company, where ice for the vessels and 
stores is made and chopped, and where the 
surplus supply of fish is frozen. 

Along Northern Avenue to the left are 
two more rows of stores, one being for the 
use of the oyster, clam and lobster dealers, 
and the other for the bank, restaurants, 
supply houses, and other small merchants. 

Each month the amount of fish increases. 
On the other hand the life of the fisherman 
changes little. He is still the most daring 
toiler who produces any food product. 

ORSON M. ARNOLD 

Orson M. Arnold, president of the New 
England Fish Company, was born in Dux- 
Ijury December lo, 1844. For many years 

he was engaged in 
mackerel seining, 
and in 1878 became 
associated with G. 
C. Richards at 32 
Commercial 
Wharf. Three years 
later he organized 
the firm of Arnold 
& \\'insor, which 
was one of the 
twent3'-seven firms 
to lease T Wharf 
for a term of thirty 
years. He is presi- 
dent of the Arnold 
& \\"insor Co., now 
located at 14 and 44 Boston Fish Pier, 
director in the Northwestern Fisheries Com- 
pany and the Canadian Fish & Cold Storage 
Co. of Vancouver, B. C. ]\Ir. Arnold is a 
member of all the IMasonic bodies of the 
York and Scottish Rites, the Odd Fellows, 
A. O. U. W., Aleppo Temple, and the Bos- 
ton Chamber of Commerce. 




ORSON M. ARNOLD 



THE NEW ENGLAND FISH 
COMPANY 
As early as 1868 this company was or- 
ganized for the purpose of systematizing 
and improving the catching of halibut. In 
1902 the business had grown so large that 
the company was incorporated and its main 
office located in Boston, at the lower end 
of the New Fish Pier, where there is a fine 
counting house and a splendidly equipped 
directors' room. 

W'ith the increased demand for halibut 
and the immense consumption which soon 
set in, it became necessary to go further and 
further to obtain these fish and when they 
were at one time very scarce along the 
Atlantic Coast our fishing-vessels were 
obliged to go to Greenland and even to Ice- 
land to obtain a supply, but they consumed so 
much time in going and returning it became 
needful to seek some other source of supply. 
So in 1893 the Company turned its atten- 
tion to the Pacific coast. In 1897 it built 
the steamer "New England" at a cost of 
some $50,000, and sent her on her long 
journey around Cape Horn up north to 
Seattle. 

The West Coast fishing proved a success 
from the start. In 1902 it purchased on the 
stock and finished building the steamer 
"Kingfisher," and in 1906 it built the 
steamer "Manhattan," both of which were 
emploved in the same fisheries. It found the 
1)anks along the coast teeming with halil)ut 
and good fares were readily secured. The 
fish are landed at Y'ancouver, B. C, and 
lioxed and iced and shipped b}' the Canadian 
Pacific Railroad across the continent until 
it gets in touch with some New England rail- 
road, and then the express companj' takes 
them in charge. The cost for transportation 
from \^ancouver to Boston is three cents per 
pound. Formerly all the cars came through 
to Boston, Ijut for the last few years cars 
have been switched off for New York as 
needed, where the company has established a 
branch ofifice with George H. Case in charge. 
At times it has had twenty cars en route, 
averaging 25,000 pounds to the car — so some 
idea of the quantity of fish handled can be- 
gathered from this. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



517 



Tlie CDiniiuiiy owns and maintains three 
cold storage plants on the Pacific coast, two 
of them being among the largest and most 
modern of anything in this country or 
Canada. On account of shipping so many 
fish across the continent it made it possible, 
with the carrying of the Canadian mails, 
for the Canadian Pacific Railroad to run 
its trains, on which are proper refrigeration 
cars. The cars containing these fish are 
hitched to a fast passenger train, thus mak- 
ing the trip in less than five days from coast 
to coast. 

At the time of the incorporation all of 



the Jjtjston wholesale fish dealers came into 
the company and a dividend is now declared 
on the stock. Since 1906, Orson Arnold 
has been president, and A. F. Rich treasurer, 
secretary and office manager. 

The New England Fish Co. has been a 
sheet anchor to the fish business of the port 
of Boston and has been largely instrumen- 
tal in making it the second largest fish mart 
in the world. 

The Boston fish pier is the largest in the 
world devoted to wholesale fish business. It 
was erected by the State at a cost of three 
million dollars. 



ALBERT FRANCIS RICH 

Albert F. Rich, who is one of the oldest 
fish merchants on the Boston Fish Pier, is 
in addition secretary, treasurer and director 

of the New Eng- 
land Fish Co. Mr. 
Rich was born in 
Ouincy, Mass., 
F e 1) r u a r \' 24. 
1 84 1, and was edu- 
cated in the public 
schools. After 
leaving school he 
followed the sea 
until 1S67, when he 
entered the whole- 
sale fish business on 
Commercial \\'harf 
and succeeded the 
firm of Holbrook 
& Smith in 1868. 
The Ijusiness was conducted under the name 
of A. F. Rich &; Co., although ]\[r. Rich was 
the sole owner until the admission of his 
son to the business, and it was then removed 
to the T Wharf and conducted there for 
thirty years. The firm is now located at 44 
Boston Fish I'ier. yir. Rich is a member 
of the Boston Fish Market Cor])oration, 
Abraham Lincoln Post 11, G. A. R., the 
Odd Fellows and the Royal Arcanum. He 
is also past president of the Crand Army 
Club of Massachusetts and the lilackman 
Club. 




ALBERT F. RICH 



WILLIAM K. BEARDSLEY 

William K. Beardsley, first and present 
manager of the New England Fish Ex- 
change, and the originator and present man- 
ager of the Whole- 
sale Fish Dealers" 
Credit Association, 
was born in Al- 
bany, N. Y., June 
16, 1869. He re- 
ceived an academic 
and business educa- 
tion in the institu- 
tions of learning in 
Albany, after which 
he entered commer- 
cial pursuits, and 
was connected witli 
T. M. Hackett 
& Co., at Albany, 
N. Y., and the N. 
Y. C. & H. R. R. R. at New York City. 
He came to Boston in 1902 as an office 
manager for A. Booth & Co. of Chicago, 
and in 1909 he was appointed to his present 
position. He served his time as a memlier 
of the 71st Regiment, N. G. N. Y., is a 
member of the Masonic Fraternity and the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He 
is the author of "Recipes for Sea Food," 
jniblished in 1913. His business address is 
the Boston Fish Pier, and his home is in 
Roslindale, Mass. 




WILLIAM K. BEARDSLEY 




THE 
BOOK OF BOSTON 



Fifty Years' Recollections of the New England Metropolis 



CHAPTER XXII 




THE CITY'S AMUSEMENTS 



Playhouses and Players — Sports and Recreations 




HILE the laws against play- 
houses and "play actors" 
were in force throughout 
the Province period and 
after establishment of the 
Commonwealth ; and the 
first theatre was not set up till 1792, and that 
disguised under the innocent title of "Moral 
Lectures," Boston today is classed a leading 
city in playhouses. Now its regular thea- 
tres number eleven, its vaudeville houses 
seven, and its "movies" too numerous to 
count. Its prominence as a theatre centre 
is due in nu small degree to its situation — 
the city surrounded by smaller cities and 
towns, thirty-six of them within a radius of 
twelve miles from the State House — ■ 
Holmes" "hub of the solar system" — that 
patronize the Boston theatres, for which the 
railroads run accommodating theatre-trains 
nightly. 

For the opposition to the establishment of 
playhouses and the hostility to players, it has 
been the custom of local historians to hold 
Governor Hancock as mainly responsible, 
and so to berate him. But he was only ex- 
ecuting the law as he found it. Doubtless 
he was in sympathy with it, and his indigna- 
tion was genuine when the play actors de- 
fied it, and he referred to the matter in his 
message to the Legislature and shut up their 
house. This first playhouse was "The New 
Exhibition Room," an old stable on Board 
Alley, now Hawley Street, roughly remod- 
elled for theatrical purposes; and its open- 
ing performance was on the evening of 
August ten, 1792. The law against "stage 
plays and other theatrical entertainments" 



was first enacted in 1750, and re-enacted in 
1784. It was impelled originally by the per- 
formance, in the early part of 1750, by a 
"company of gentlemen," two English ac- 
tors and local volunteers, of Otway's "Or- 
phan : or Unhappy Marriage," given in the 
British Coffee House, on King Street. 
During the siege, Faneuil Hall was con- 
verted into a temporary playhouse by the 
British officers, assisted by a "Society for 
Promoting Theatrical Amusement," com- 
posed of Royalist citizens who remained in 
the beleaguered town, and several plays were 
performed by soldiers as actors. One play, 
at least, was original and on a local theme : 
"The Blockade of Boston," written by Gen- 
eral Burgoyne; it is related that its perform- 
ance was interrupted by the sudden appear- 
ance at the door of a sergeant with the 
report that "the Yankees are attacking our 
works at Charlestown," and that the officers 
were ordered to their posts. 

The first performance of the Board-Alley 
Theatre was given in the guise of "A Moral 
Lecture" by a band of London comedians 
under the management of Joseph Harper, a 
member of the company of Hallam & Henry, 
who had successfully established playhouses 
in New York and Philadelphia. Samuel 
Adams Drake, in his "Old Landmarks," 
preserved the bill fur this opening night. It 
offered : first, an exhibition of "Dancing on 
the Tight Rope, by Monsieurs Placide and 
Martin. IMons. Placide will dance a Horn- 
pipe on a Tight Rope, play the \^iolin in 
various attitudes, and jump over a cane 
Iiackwards and forwards." There was to 
follow an "Introductory Address," by Mr. 



THE BOOK OP^ BOSTON 



519 



Harper; "singing by Air. Wools"; and more 
"feats of tumbling Ity Mons. Placiile and 
jMartin, who ^\■ill make somersetts back- 
wards over a tal)le, chair, &c. ; Mons. Mar- 
tin will exhi])it several feats on the Slack 
Rope." "In the course of the Evening's En- 
tertainment," Mr. Harper was to deliver 
"The Gallery of Portraits, or the \Vorld as 
it Goes" ; and the show was to conclude with 
"A Dancing Ballet called The Bird Catcher, 
with the Minuet de la Cour and the Gavot." 
The success of this first performance em- 
boldened the players, and further "Lectures" 
were given of some of the best-known plays 
of the day. Thus Otway's "Venice Pre- 
served," in "Moral Lectures in five parts," 
in which "the dreadful effects of conspiracy 
will be exemplified, " was announced; Gar- 
rick's "Lethe," as a "Satirical Lecture," by 
Mr. Watts and Mrs. Solomon ; Shakespere's 
plays in the same slender disguise. At 
length, after unsuccessful efforts to procure 
an indictment against the enterprise from 
the grand jury, a warrant was obtained for 
the arrest of Harper and others of the com- 
pany. On the evening of December fifth, 



1702, in the midst of a performance of one 
of Shakespere's "Aloral Lectures," the 
Sheriff appeared on the stage and put 
Harper, wh(i was costumed for and deliver- 
ing the jiart, under arrest. The audience, 
for the most part, evidently, in sympathy 
with the actors, raised a tumult. A portrait 
of Hancock which had adorned the stage- 
box, with the state arms, was torn from its 
place, and portrait and arms trampled under 
foot. At a hearing the next day, in Faneuil 
Hall, the prisoner was defended by Harri- 
son Gray Otis, who, nevertheless, supported 
the prohibitory law, and his discharge ob- 
tained through a technicality. Thereafter 
the theatre was reopened, and its perform- 
ances continued at intervals without further 
interruption till the Spring of 1793, when 
the movement for the erection of Boston's 
first substantial theatre, a Bulfinch design, 
was advancing. Then the first, Board-Alley, 
playhouse was abandoned. 

It must have been a most inviting play- 
house, this first substantial theatre, of Bul- 
finch's design. It was fashioned after the 
London theatres.* 



* At this point the editor's hand relaxed. The pen 
which had been his faithful friend for fifty years of 
newspaper and literary work was laid down forever. 



520 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



THE LATE EDWIN M. BACON 

Boston Newspaper Comments upon the Lamented Death of Edwin M. Bacon, 
THE Editor of This Book, Which Occurred on February 24, 1916 



THE POST 

Edwin M. Bacon, 71, veteran anther and 
former editor of the Post, died last night 
at his home, 36 Pinckney Street, after a 
Hngering illness. 

Edwin Munroe Bacon's journalistic 
career was in that literary period of Boston 
often referred to as its "golden age." He 
was born in Providence on October 20, 
1844, the son of a Universalist minister. 
After a limited course in the schools of 
Providence and Philadelphia he was gradu- 
ated from an academy kept by James L. 
Stone in Foxboro. 

When nineteen years of age he began his 
newspaper career as a reporter for the Bos- 
ton Daily Advertiser, under Charles Hale. 
After a few years he went to Chicago 
to take charge of the Illustrated Nezvs. 
Thomas Nast was one of his associates on 
this publication. 

From Chicago, when the Nci^'s suspended 
publication, Mr. Bacon returned East to 
New York, where he became first night edi- 
tor and later managing editor of the Times. 
His work there was under the direction of 
the founder, Henry J. Raymond, and the 
late S. S. Conant. 

In 1872 he returned to Boston because 
of ill health and again became connected 
with the Advertiser. After a year on this 
publication he went to the Boston Globe 
as managing editor. He remained in this 
position five years, and in 1878 again re- 
turned to the Advertiser as managing edi- 
tor. He held this position till 1883, when 
he was made editor-in-chief. 

In 1886 he came to the Post as editor-in- 
chief, holding the position till 1891. In 
1897 he became editor of the Time and the 
Hour, remaining there till 1900. During 
all the years of his work in Boston he was 
correspondent for New York papers and the 
Springfield Repiiblieaii. 

He was also the author of various vol- 



umes and historical works relating to Bos- 
ton and New England. Among these were 
"Boston Ilkistrated," "Bacon's Dictionary 
of Boston," "Boston of Today," "Walks 
and Rides in the Country Round About 
Boston," "Historic Pilgrimages in New 
England," "Literary Pilgrimages in New 
England," "Boston : a Guide Book," and 
"The Connecticut River and the Valley of 
the Connecticut." 

His last literary work was "Rambles 
Around Boston," published last year, pre- 
vious to which a series of reminiscences of 
notable men associated with journalism in 
Boston appeared in the Post in 1914. For 
the past year he had been in failing health, 
but was not taken seriously ill till a couple 
of months ago. He is survived by a wife 
and daughter. 

Editorial 

A rare soul passed away from earth in 
the death of Edwin M. Bacon. He was one 
of our New England people whose impulse 
was toward the higher ideals of that civili- 
zation for which we stand, and whose whole 
career was characterized by a loft)- pur- 
pose for its development. 

In his work in journalism Mr. Bacon 
manifested a purpose of practical idealism. 
Entering this profession at an early age 
and continuing until his services were in 
demand for the conduct of leading news- 
papers in New York and in Boston, he took 
place at the head ; in his chosen line of work 
he represented the ethical force which is 
now recognized as the basis of newspaper 
production today. 

Air. Bacon was infused with the New 
England spirit. His frequent additions to 
the literature of our history are character- 
istic. Thev show not only the inspiration 
of inherited love for the soil, but that of 
the most careful investigation. Boston and 



Till-: IU)()K OF BOSTON 



521 



New England owe mueh to the record which 
he has made, in his jnihHslied \cihinies, of 
their intimate history. 

As a man among men, he was honored h\' 
all who knew him, genial, straightforward, 
bearing modestly his honors. \ale! 

THE TRANSCRIPT 
Edwin Munroe Bacon, author, and for 
many years one of the most prominent 
newspaper men of Boston, died Thurs(la>- 
night at his home, 36 Pinckney Street. He 
was seventy-one years old. For the past 
3'ear he had been in failing health, but was 
not taken seriously ill till al)out two months 
ago. At various times in his career Mr. 
Bacon was editor-in-chief of the Boston Ad- 
vertiser, the Boston Globe, and the Boston 
Post, and had been connected with other 
newspapers. Of late he had been editor of 
the "Book of Boston,"' with an office at 112 
Water Street. 

Mr. Bacon was born in Providence, R. L, 
October 20, 1844, the son of Henry Bacon 
and Eliza Ann (Munroe) Bacon. His 
father (the son of Robert Bacon of an early 
Cape Cod family) was a Universalist 
clergyman and editor, who died in Philadel- 
phia when his son was twelve years old. 
Mr. Bacon came of old English and Scotch 
ancestr}', and on his mother's side was a 
descendant of William Munroe of Scot- 
land, who settled in Lexington in 1660. 
Later memljers of this family fought in the 
battle on Lexington Green, at the beginning 
of the Revolutionary war. 

^fr. Bacon's early education was gained 
in i)rivate schools in Providence, Philadel- 
phia and in Boston, finishing at a private 
school in Foxboro (of which James L. 
Stone was principal) where young men 
were fitted for college. \\"ell prepared for 
college, Mr. Bacon decided not to enter, but 
to begin at once a literary career, first en- 
gaging in newspaper work at the age of 
nineteen, when he became connected with 
the Boston Paih' Adi'crtiser as a rei)orter 
under Charles Hale, who was editor. Mr. 



I'.acon remained there for several years and 
resigned to take the editorship of the Illiis- 
tratcd Chicago Neil's, an enterprise which 
enjoved a Ijrief, yet rejmtable, career. 

From Chicago Mr. Bacon returned East, 
and in 1868 became identified with the New 
York Times, successively as assistant night 
editor, night editor, and managing or news 
editor. In 1872 Mr. Bacon, because of ill 
health, resigned his position and returned 
to Boston and here he re])resented the Times 
as its New England corresixmdent. Event- 
uallv he returned to the Boston Adi'criiser 
and became its general news editor. 

In 1873 Mr. I5acon was chosen as the 
chief editor of the Boston Globe, and for five 
vears conducted that paper as an inde- 
pendent journal, resigning in 1878 upon a 
change of policy. He then returned to the 
Advertiser as managing editor. When Ed- 
ward Stanwood, in 1883, resigned as chief 
editor of the Advertiser, Mr. Bacon came 
into full editorial charge of that paper, as 
Mr. Stanw(_)od's successor. Later Mr. Ba- 
con organized the staff of the Evening Rec- 
ord for the Advertiser corporation. In Jan- 
uarv, 1886, when the Advertiser passed into 
new hands and its policy was changed, ]\Ir. 
Bacon retired, and in May of that year was 
made chief editor of the Boston Post, when 
that paper was purchased by a number of 
men who, in politics, were kn( i\\ n as In- 
dependents. Lender Mr. Bacon's editorship 
the paper addressed itself to the best citizens 
of the community. 

When, in 1891, the control of the paper 
was sold, Mr. Bacon retired and he since 
had Ijeen engaged in general journalistic and 
literarv work. For many years he was the 
writer of a Boston letter to the Springfield 
Republican and had been editor of Time and 
the Hour. 

In his work as an author, j\Ir. Bacon's 
books have included various historical works 
relating to lioston and New England. 
Among these were "Boston Illustrated," 
"Bacon's Dictionary of l^joston," "Boston 
of Todav," "Walks and Rides in the Coun- 
trv R<iund About Boston," "Historic Pil- 
grimages in New England," "Literary Pil- 



522 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



grimages in New England," "Boston : a 
Guide Book," "The Connecticut River and 
the Valley of Connecticut," "Yesterday in 
Journalism," and "The Boys' Drake." His 
last literary work was "Rambles Around 
Old Boston." 

On October 24, 1867, at Somerville, Mr. 
Bacon married Miss Gusta E. Hill, daugh- 
ter of Ira and Hannah Hill. Mrs. Bacon 
survives her husband, with a daughter, Mrs. 
Palmer, who formerly was Madeleine L. 
Bacon. 

Editorial 

Edwin M. Bacon, who died yesterday in 
this city, was a journalist of the old, thor- 
ough, and conscientious school, whose idea 
of an editor's responsibility was never less 
than that of Edward Everett Hale himself, 
the traditions of whose honorable journalis- 
tic family Mr. Bacon ably continued on the 
old Advertiser. As an editor, Mr. Bacon 
wrought his personality into every line of 
the newspaper at whose head he stood — and 
it fell to his lot to be chief in command at 
different times of three leading Boston 
dailies. But Boston journalism may be said 
to have moved away from him ; and an- 
other field of activity, that of the prepara- 
tion of descriptive books about the New 
England which he so deeply loved, occupied 
his time. As the historian of the Connecti- 
cut valley he had attained an honorable place 
in literature. But personally he will be long 
remembered by a generation of American 
journalists whom he had trained up in the 
most painstaking work. Many of these men 
have passed to widely different fields of ac- 
tivity; but all of them will remember the 
lessons of conscience and thoroughness in 
work which he taught them. 

THE GLOBE 

Edwin M. Bacon, newspaper editor and 
publicist, died at his home, 36 Pinckney 
Street, of pneumonia, at 10 o'clock last 
evening. Although Mr. Bacon had not done 
any regular newspaper work for more than 
a decade, he was a contributor to magazines 



on a variety of subjects and a keen student 
of Americana, especially of the early history 
of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay 
Colony. 

A generation ago Mr. Bacon was one of 
the best-known newspaper men in the coun- 
try. He was born in Providence, October 
20, 1844. At the age of nineteen he went 
to work as a reporter on the Boston Ad- 
vertiser, doing miscellaneous work. A little 
later he became editor of the Illustrated 
Chicago Neivs, from \\hich he went to the 
New York Times in 1868 and remained un- 
til 1872, doing editorial and dramatic work. 
In 1873 he returned to the Boston Adver- 
tiser, where he remained only a few months, 
« hen he became editor of the Boston Globe, 
which position he held until 1878, when he 
became managing editor of the Boston Ad- 
vertiser and editor-in-chief in 1884. In 1886 
he became editor-in-chief of the Boston 
Post. A few years later he retired to pur- 
sue literary tastes and studies more conge- 
nial to his nature than the routine of news- 
paper work. Erom 1897 to 1900 he edited 
a little weekly paper. Time and tlie Hour. 

He was the author of several guide books 
of Boston, in which he showed not only a 
fine knowledge of historic Boston, but a 
rare intimacy with the life and growth of the 
city in all of its activities. One charming 
book was entitled "Walks and Rides in the 
Country Round About Boston" ; another 
was "Historic Pilgrimages in New Eng- 
land," and another, "Literary Pilgrimages 
in New England." 

Mr. Bacon had a charming personality. 
He was highly regarded b\' many of the 
younger writers, whom he was always de- 
lighted to advise, and he was a veritable 
"fund of information'' at all times on Bos- 
ton events and Boston people. He could 
entertain by the hour with stories and rem- 
iniscences of his newspaper experience, 
and especially with stories of the eminent 
people he had known. He had not enjoyed 
very good health for a year or more. Henry 
Bacon, the famous artist, who died in 
Egypt a few years ago, was his brother. 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



523 



THE HERALD 

Edwin • IMuiiroe Bacon, former editor of 
the Boston Adi'crtiscr and of tlie Boston 
Globe, and at one time managing editor of 
the New York Times, died last evening at 
his home on Pinckney Street, at the age of 
seventy-one years. 

He was born at Providence, October 20, 
1844, and graduated from Dartmouth Col- 
lege in 1879. At the age of nineteen he be- 
came a reporter on the Boston Daily Ad- 
7rrfiscr and a short while later editor of the 
Illustrated Chieago N'e^cs. The years be- 
tween 186S and 187 J he spent in an editorial 
ca])acity on the New York Times, returning 
later to the Boston Adc'ertiser, 

In 1873 he went to the BxistdU Globe and 
soon became editor-in-chief of that paper. 
He also served during that period as Bos- 
ton correspondent of the New York Times. 

After his service on the Boston Globe 
he returned to the Boston Aihrerfiser. and 
also was correspondent frum this citv to 
the Springfield Republican. 

His later interests made him author and 
eflitor of various historical works relating 
to Boston and New England, including 
"The Boston Blustrated," "Bacon's Diction- 
ary of Boston,'' "Boston of Today." "Walks 
and Rides in the Country Round AI)ciut Bos- 
ton," "Historic Pilgrimages in New Eng- 
land,'' "Literary Pilgrimages in New Eng- 
land," "Boston: a Guide Book," "The 
Connecticut River and the A'alley of the 
Connecticut." 

The Sunday Herald 

To the late Edwin Munroe Bacon, who 
died at his home in Pinckney Street on 
Thursday in his seventy-first year, be- 
longed the distinction of having been one 
of the most enthusiastic and devoted news- 
paper men of his time. This is not saying 
that he was entitled to rank as a great jour- 
nalist. He lacked some of the essential 
<luaIifications that have entitled his more 
successful professional brethren to that high 
rank, Init his industry, iidelity and passion 
for his calling were as cons])icuous in his 



journalistic career as in that of any of the 
best of them. It is only necessary to note 
the many and prominent positions in jour- 
nalism he occupied from time to time to at- 
test his activities therein. During the half- 
century he devoted to newspaper work he 
had for a time filled al)out all the positions 
that are open t(j a journalist, beginning as 
an office boy and subsequently sjianning the 
whole ganuit from local reporter, corres- 
pondent, city editor, telegraph editor, man- 
aging edit<jr, up to editor-in-chief. In one 
or all of these special capacities he from 
time to time served the New Y^ork Times, 
the Springfield Republican and the Daily Ad- 
vertiser, the Globe and the Post of this city. 
His most ambitious undertaking in connec- 
tion with any of these newspapers was his 
effort to put the old Post on its feet at a 
time when it was experiencing some of those 
severe vicissitudes of fortune that overtake 
so many newsjiapers at some time or other, 
and for one cause or amither, in their his- 
tory. Having obtained the backing of sev- 
eral gentlemen of light and leading in this 
vicinity, with ample financial resources, Mr. 
liacon at the head of an accomplished staff 
suddenly transformed the old Post, that 
had formerly flourished as a Democratic 
r)rgan in folio form, into \vhat was then 
called a nuigwump publication, in quarto 
form, catering more particularly to that 
somewhat limited constituency which |)refer 
the idealistic in politics and only what is nice, 
exemplar}- and proper in the daily chronicle 
of events. It also aimed to be strictly liter- 
ary and artistic. It was a noble and praise- 
worthy endeavor on the part of Mr. Bacon 
and his fine staff, but it failed after a com- 
])aratively lirief and fitful existence, and the 
permanent establishment of "the ideal news- 
l)aper" was again indefinitely postponed. 
The popular verdict on the remains was that 
Mr. Piacon's news])aper was too choice for 
this wicked world, and that the management 
made the mistake of shooting over the heads 
of the people. ]\Ir. Grozier, who succeeded 
the I'.acou management in both the manage- 
ment and ownershi]) of the Post, changed 



524 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



this policy radically, with results that are 
now conspicuously obvious. 

A notable trait of Mr. Bacon's service as 
a newspaper man was his entire loyalty and 
devotion to the news])apers with which he 
was connected from time to time. Some- 
times this enthusiastic devotion got him 
into trouble. When he was a reporter on 
the Daily Advertiser, for instance, his esti- 
mate of the standing and importance of that 
newspaper in all mundane circles amounted 
to hero worship. It was Reporter Bacon's 
opinion that all the accredited representa- 
tives of "the Respectable Daily," as the Ad- 
vertiser was then called, were entitled to the 
entree at all gatherings of every kind, busi- 
ness, political and social, wherever held, at 
any time. Mr. Bacon was fond of telling 
how this sort of enthusiasm on his part led 
to an awkward situation for him on one 
occasion. This was at a meeting of the 
members of the Union Club called to take 
appropriate action on the death of Edward 
Everett, who had been the club's first presi- 
dent. Reporter Bacon attended the meet- 
ing, paying no heed to the club's rules of 
privacy. When his presence, with his note- 
book in hand, was observed in the club- 
house, a member bluntly asked him what he 
was there for. 

"I represent the Daily Advertiser," 
proudly replied Reporter Bacon. 

"Get out. Reporters have no business 
here," shouted the member. 

"But I represent the Daily Advertiser," 
said Reporter Bacon again, with swelling 
chest. 

"I don't care a damn for the Daily Ad- 
vertiser," retorted the member. "Get out." 

"And I care no more for you, sir," said 
proud Reporter Bacon. 

In a moment, a very brief moment, Re- 
porter Bacon found himself seized by the 
collar and gently but firmly deposited on 
the broad sidewalk in front of the club- 
house. "It was a most humiliating expe- 
rience," Mr. Bacon used to say, "but I felt 
the greater hurt from the indignity cast 
upon the newspaper I proudly represented." 
In his later years Mr. Bacon took an oppor- 



tunit}- to tell the story at a Union Clul) din- 
ner at which he was an honored guest. 

In his later years, Mr. Bacon, after his 
permanent retirement from journalism, de- 
voted himself to literary work, preparing or 
editing numerous historical works of a local 
character as well as some useful handbooks 
and guidebooks of Boston. The "Dictionary 
of Boston," edited by him, contains a large 
fund of information about the city and 
some very piquant comments on Boston 
manners and customs as well. Speaking of 
club life here, the editor discourses at length 
on what goes on in these exclusive precincts. 
"The Boston clubman," he says, "is always 
decorous, even in his indecorum. If he in- 
dulges too freel}' and recklessly in a game 
of cards he does not give vent to slangy 
abuse of his luck, but comforts himself with 
the Horatian reflection about the certainty 
of the changes of fortune and the balm of 
a contented mind. If he happens to partake 
too generously of wine he does not careen 
over or run desperately aground on some 
fragile piece of furniture. He avoids the 
susceptible cuspidor and the yielding chan- 
delier and plants himself finally in a recep- 
tive arm-chair or upon a genial sofa, and 
waits till meditation and the economy of his 
digestive organs restore his mental and 
ph3-sical equilibrium. It is the social and 
covivial safety-valve which lets off the 
superfluous steam in season to prevent an 
explosion." 

This description of club life in Boston 
may not be wholly faithful or graphic, but 
it is at least picturesque and readable. 

George F. Babbitt. 

THE RECORD 

Edwin M. Bacon, 71, veteran author and 
former editor of the Post, died last night 
at his home, 36 Pinckney Street, after a lin- 
gering illness. 

Edwin Munroe Bacon was born in Provi- 
dence, the son of a Universalist minister. 

When nineteen )-ears of age he began his 
newspaper career as a reporter for the Bos- 



TMF. ROOK OF ROSTOX 



,■>_',-) 



ton Daily .-idi'rrtisrr. under Charles Hale. 
After a few years he went to Chicago to 
take charge of the Illustrated Ncivs. 

From Chicago, \\ lien tlie A'i'Ti'.s- suspended 
jnihHcation, 'Mr. Bacon returned East to 
New York. 

In 1872 he returned to I'.oston l>ecause of 
ill health and again became connected with 
the Advertiser. After a year on this pub- 
lication he went to the Boston Globe as 
managing editor. In 1878 he again returned 
to the Advertiser as managing editor, and 
in 1883 he was made editor-in-chief. 

In 1886 he went to the l\->st as editor-in- 
chief, holding the position till 1891. In 
1897 he became editor of Time and the 
Hour, remaining there till 1900. 

He was also the author of various vol- 
umes and historical works relating to Bos- 
ton and New England. Among these were 
"Boston Illustrated," "Bacon's Dictionary 
of Boston," "Boston of Today," "Walks 
and Rides in the Country Round About Bos- 
ton," "Historic Pilgrimages in New Eng- 
land," "Literary Pilgrimages in New Eng- 
land," "Boston : a Guide Book," and "The 
Connecticut River and the A'allev of Con- 
necticut." 

THE JOURNAL 

Edwin M. Bacon, for many years one of 
the most prominent newspaper men of Bos- 
ton, died last night at his home, 36 Pinck- 
ney Street. He was seventy-one years old. 

At various times in his career he was 
editor-in-chief of the Boston Globe, the 
Boston Post and the Boston Advertiser. Of 
late he had been editor of the "Book of Bos- 
ton," with an office at 112 Water Street. 
A wid(jw and a daughter survive him. 

The Post 

"Many at the Fiinend of Baeon" 

Men prominent in civic and journalistic 
life gathered }'esterday afternoon in the 
home of Edwin Munroe Bacon, 36 I'inckne}' 
Street, to pay their last tribute to the author 
and newspaper man who at different times 



held the highest positions on three Boston 
newspapers. 

The funeral services, planned by Mr. Ba- 
con during his last illness, were extremely 
simple. There were no pall bearers and no 
music. Floral tributes were only from mem- 
bers of the family and a few of the closest 
friends. The body, also in accordance Avith 
Mr. I'acon's wish, was taken to IMt. Au- 
burn crematory for cremation. 

"He saw tlie doors opening I)ef(}re him 
in his last illness, and his desires, almost 
apologies for causing even the slightest 
trouble, were characteristic cif the man," de- 
clared the Rev. Edward A. Horton, former 
pastor of the Second L'nitarian Church, and 
a lifelong friend of Mr. Bacon, in his 
eulog\-. 

A poem written Ijy M. J. Savage was read 
by the Rev. Mr. Ilorton. Prayers com- 
pleted the brief ceremony. 

I\Ir. Horton spoke feelingly of his long 
friendship with the former editor-in-chief 
of the Post. 

"His conscientiousness was the granite 
foundation of his character," declared Mr. 
Horton. "It gave him convictions, and 
when asked for his ojjinion, he told it read- 
ily. He was sincere in all things. 

"Our friend declared only a short time 
ago that a true Bostonian is one who is con- 
scientious, is firm in his convictions and is 
a lover of old New England. Mr. Bacon 
had these attributes, giving him a firm in- 
dependence. He did not compronuse. 

"Fie had an enthusiasm in his work, and 
ne.xt to his love of his home and friends he 
prized his joy in his work. Wherever were 
his pen and desk and book was his happi- 
ness. 

"He did not lose himself in scholastic pur- 
suits, yet kept in touch with them. Always 
was he with a noble cause. He recognized 
safe and sane channels for the uplift of 
luimanitv. 

"'idle man we mourn had coiupassion and 
ap])lied to human weaknesses the brotherly 
hand. He was for levelling up and not 
down. He was one who believed the world 



526 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



could be bettered and tbat the Almighty had 
provided for it." 

Mr. Horton referred to 'Mr. Bacon as a 
man with a "good-will heart." He declared 
that the wife, daughter and friends of the 
dead man must not mourn his loss, but be 
joyful because it had been given them to 
know such a man. 

Editors at Service 

Among those who attended the service 
were J. E. Chamberlin, editorial writer of 
the Boston Evening Transcript ; Nathan 
Haskell Dole; Lindsay Swift, editor of the 
Boston Public Library publications ; George 
F. Babbitt of the Boston Herald; Robert 
Lincoln O'Brien, editor of the Herald; C. 
W. Barron, editor of the Boston Nczvs Bu- 
reau; Henry C. Merwin and Edwin L. 
Sprague. 

Governor McCall, who was an intimate 
friend of Mr. Bacon, planned to attend the 
funeral service, liut was unavoidably absent. 
He sent his sympathy to the wife and daugh- 
ter of Mr. Bacon. 

After cremation, the ashes will be held 
at Mt. Auburn until more clement weather, 
and will then be buried in Saco, Me. 

The name of Edwin M. Bacon is one 
which will live in the history of Boston 
journalism. He participated in the news- 
paper business in this and other cities of 



the country for more than half a century, 
and held many responsible positions. 

He began his newspaper work on the 
Boston Daily Advertiser, as a reporter, 
when nineteen years old. Then, in succes- 
sion, he worked as an editor of the Chicago 
Illustrated Nczvs, night editor and manag- 
ing editor of the New York Times, return- 
ing to the Advertiser in 1872 for a year. 
Then he went to the Globe as managing edi- 
tor, and after five years became managing 
editor of the Advertiser. He was made 
editor-in-chief of the paper in 1883. 

His connection with the Post was made 
in 1886, when he became editor-in-chief, a 
position he held five years. He was editor 
of the Time and the Hour from 1896 until 
1900. 

During his newspaper work and after re- 
tiring from the game, Mr. Bacon wrote nine 
books, the last, "Rambles Around Boston," 
being pul)lished last year. For a year he 
has Ijeen in failing health, but his illness did 
not become serious until two months ago. 

Mr. Bacon retained his interest in news- 
paper work and civic affairs until the hour 
of his death. The last article by him to 
be published in a Boston newspaper was 
written December 13, 1915. It was an able 
argument urging voters to go to the polls 
and elect the Citizens' ticket. 



EDWIN MONROE BACON* 

A cherished friend lies here asleep today. 

After the hours <if weariness and pain, 
An angel drew her curtains round his bed, 

And though we call, he answers not again. 

Nor would \\c wish to w;d<e him if we might, 
For he has seen the Unseen face to face. 

His work is finished. \\'ho would dare 

To call him back again, from his high place? 

And yet, O friends, it is such men as he 
That make the earth seem empty when 
they leave. 

That he was noble is our comfort now, 
And yet 'tis for this ver\- cause we grieve. 

A true and sincere soul, with vision clear. 
Firm was he in the battle for the right : 

Yet tender-hearted, too, and moved by pain 
O'er human woes that ever met his sight. 

He loved his home. As needle to the pole 
Turns ever true on all the seas men roam. 

So to his fireside turned his faithful heart — • 
No spot tci him su cherished as his home. 

When all is thought and said, we turn to this— 
Though clouds be round us and tears dim 
our way, 

\\'e still will trust that He who makes the night. 
Must lead us through it to the coming day. 

^\'e'll jilace his living memory in our hearts; 

With l<jve we'll trace the pathway that he trod ; 
And make our days ascending steps upon 

The beckoning slopes that lead to him and Ood. 

- — Minot J. Savage. 



* These lines were read by the Re\'. Edward A. Horton 
at the private funeral exercises of the editor. 



INDEX 



Page 

Abbott, Saimicl A. B 208 

Abele, George \V. 458 

Adams House 49, 489 

Adams Mansion 428 

Akeroyd, Alfred 323 

Allard, Dr. Frank Ellsworth 299 

Allen, J. Weston 481 

AUin, Horatio N 421 

American House 49 

American Tool & Machinery Co 371 

Anderson, J. Alfred 442 

Andros, Sir Edmund 32 

Appleton, Capt. Francis H 339 

Aquarium, at City Point 210 

Armstrong, George W 374 

Arnold Arboretum 152 

Arnold, Orson M 516 

Arnold, Dr. Seth F 303 

Art Museum 257 

Athenaeum, Boston 52, 253 

Atlantic Works, The 338 

Attack on Bunker Hill, \ie\v 37 

Avery, Charles F 326 

Aver\-, Herbert S 468 

Aviary in Franklin Fark 152 

Ayres, Bridges & Co 322 

Ayres, Samuel L 322 

Babb, Edward E 198 

Bacon, Edwin M 5, 520-527 

Badger, Dr. George S. C 308 

Badger & Sons Co., E. B ?62-363 

Bailen, Samuel L 402 

Bailey, Hollis R 419 

Baldwin, Colonel L 100 

Barber, Albert G 511 

Barker, Melville H 371 

Bartlett, Ralph S 438 

Bateman, William R 318 

Bates, Ex-Governor John 1 189 

Battison, William J 318 

■ Bayley, Edwin A 416-418 

Beacon Hill in 1811 42 

Beacon Hill Reservoir 55 

Beacon Street 256 

Beal, Herman 1 3,^9 

Beardsley, Willi.im K 517 

Bellevue Hotel 487 

Bellingham-Cary House 375 

Benedict, George W 321 

Bennett, Josiah 216 

Bigelow, Dr. Jacob 286 

Bigelow, William R 460 

Bird Club 117 

Black, Arthur 468 

Blackmere, Herbert C 195 



Page 

Blanchard, John H 460 

Blaxton, pioneer settler 26 

Bliss, Elmer J 483.^-483B 

Bliss, James F i73 

Blood, Charles W. H 360-361 

Board of Trade Building 71 

Bolster, Hon. Wilfred 397 

Boston Athletic Association 121 

Boston Canyon 59 

Boston City Club 122-123 

Boston City Hos]iital 287-289 

Boston College 229-230 

Boston Common 159, 213 

Boston Dispensary 288 

Boston Elevated Railway Co 114 

Boston F'ish Pier 82, 515 

Boston Harbor 14, 33, 183 

Boston Insurance Company 226 

Boston Museum of .Art 255 

Boston Mutual Life Insurance Co 224 

Boston Opera House 247 

Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn R.R 512 

Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co 215 

Boston University 230 

Boston LIniversity School of .Medicine .... 292 

Boston & Lowell 103 

Bottomly, Robert J 438 

Bradstreet, Samuel 33 

Bragg, Hon. Henry W 398 

Braley, Hon. Henr>- K 397 

Brazer Building 42 

Brennan, James H 239 

Bridges, Samuel W 322 

Brigham Hospital, Peter Bent 290 

Brigham Hospital, Rofjert Breck 290 

" Britannia " in Boston Harbor 79 

Brogna, Vincent 475 

Brown, Allen A 222 

Brown, Hon. Charles J 442 

Brown, George W 353 

Brown, Jacob F 320-321 

Brown, James 267 

Brown, William H 4M) 

Bruce, Hon. Charles M 399 

Brunswick Hotel 488 

Bunker Hill Monument 143 

Burdett, Everett W 420-421 

Burgis Map of Boston in 1729 29 

Burr, .Arthur E 481 

Butler, Hon. Willi.im .M 409 

Cabot, Dr. Hugh 298 

Cambridgeport Savings Bank 219 

Cangiano, ."Mphonse 465-466 

Canoeing on the Charles River 282 

Canterbury Hotel 493 



530 



THE BOOK OP' BOSTON 



Page 

Capitol of Massachusetts 21 

Carleton, Edward B 326 

Carney Hospital 290 

Carroll, Francis M 444 

Casas, W. B. de las 190 

Castle Square Hotel 49U 

Cathedral of the Holy Cross 177 

Central Congregational Church 175 

Chadwick, George W 260 

Chamberlain, Dr. M. L 300-301 

Chamber of Commerce 69-72,213 

Chandler, Asa E 280 

Chandler & Company 334 

Charitable Eye & Ear Infirmary 289 

Charles River Bridge 32, 81 

Charles River Esplanade 289 

Chase & Co., L. C 336 

Cheney, Benjamin P 268-269 

Chestnut Hill Reservoir and Drive 274 

Child, Richard W 422 

Children's Hospital 295 

Childs, Edwin Otis 447 

China-American Trading Co 323 

Christ Church 139 

Church Green 53 

City Hall 48, 202 

City Hall Annex 181 

City Hospital 287-289 

Clapp, Robert P 433 

Clarke, Hon. Chester VV 423 

Clarke, Hon. William W 441 

Clementson, Sidney 323 

Cobb's Lunch Departments 502-503 

Cobb's Tea Company 505 

Codman, Col. Charles R 267 

Coggan, Marcellus 453-454 

Cole, Fred B 199 

Cole, John N 216 

Common, Boston 213 

Commonwealth Avenue 404 

Commonwealth Pier 82 

Conant, Dr. William M . . 303 

Concord Battle Field Memorial 141 

Congress and Milk Streets 38 

" Constitution " in Boston Harbor 42 

Converse Building 331 

Cooley, Morgan L 262-263 

Copley-Plaza Hotel 171,485 

Copp's Hill Bur>'ing-ground 133 

Cornhill Street 381 

Cottrell Company, M. F 505 

Court House 391 

Court, Public Library 472 

Cox, Hon. Guy W 419 

Cram, Ralph A 242 

Crystal Lake 304 

Cummings Dairy 509 

Cummings, Francis S 508-509 

Cunard Company 78 

Currj', Dr. Samuel S 232 

Curtiss, Hon. Elmer L 468 

Pustom House 63, 211 



Page 

Dahlquist, Theodore W 263 

Dakin, Arthur H 482 

Dalton House, Captain James 38 

Dawson & Co., H 325 

Dean, Hon. Josiah S 400 

De las Casas, William B 190 

Denison, Arthur E 434 

de Rochemont, Louis L. G 47-1 

Desmond, G. Henri 241 

Dever, John F 192 

Dillaway, George L 474 

Dodge, Harry C 360 

Doe, Hon. Orestes T 403 

Donovan, Hon. James 192 

Dudley Gate at Harvard College 483 

Duggan, John A 190 

Dysart, Robert 348-349 

Eaton, John E 444 

Ebann, Dr. C. Deletang 304 

Edwards, Truman G 278 

Elder, Hon. Samuel J 406 

Elks Home 119 

Elliott, Richard P 4.S9 

Enneking, John J 255 

Engineers Club 124 

English, William A 319 

English & O'Brien 319 

Ernst, George A. 410 

Esplanade, Charles River 389 

Essex Hotel 487 

Evans House 49 

Exchange Coffee House 57 

Fabyan, Hon. Harry C 399 

Fagan, Joseph P 473 

Fairbanks House, Old 342 

Fallon, Hon. Joseph D 403 

Faneuil Hall 40, 201 

Farragut Statue, Marine Park 257 

Farrell, John L 326 

Feather Store 25 

Feeding Ducks in Franklin Park 151 

Feeley, Joseph J 401 

Fenway, The . 89 

Fire of 1872 66 

First Baptist Church 169 

First Boston Town House 20 

First Church 165 

First Church of Christ, Scientist .... 172-173 

First Congregational Church 168 

First National Bank of Boston 214 

Fish, Charles H 194 

Fish, Frederick P 406 

Fish Pier 82, 515 

Fitzgerald, Desmond 198 

Flint, Hon. James H 400 

Floating Bridge 101 

Floyd Lunch Company 496 

Ford, Lawrence A 450 



INDEX 



531 



Page 

Forsyth Dental Infiriiiary 296-297 

Fort Hill 48, 60 

Foster Rubber Co ii'i 

Foster, Walter H 457 

French, Hon. Asa P 411 

French, John J .'"" 

Franklin Park 155, 483 

Franklin Street 53, 58, 59 

F'rog Pond, Public Garden 159 

Frothinghan), Randolph 422 

Galassi, Elias 378 

Gallagher, Daniel J 440 

Garfield, Irvin M 428 

Garland, Francis P 457 

Gaugengigl, Ignaz M 258 

Gile, Fred H 447 

Gillette Safety Razor Co 340 

Gilman, Arthur 90 

Ginn & Company 332-333 

Gleason Pulilishing House 55 

Gleason, Reulien 380 

Glidden, Walter S 22(1 

Globe Optical Co 511 

Glunts, James D 281-282 

Gooding, Charles S 359 

Gould, Amasa C 463 

Graham, James M 443 

Grant, Walter B 475 

Graves, Dr. William P 305 

Gray, W. Chester 280 

Great Boston Fire 65 

Green, Dr. Charles M 298 

Green, Philip A 334 

Greenhood, Benjamin H 465 

Gridley, Jeremiah 385 

Grimes, Hon. James W 411 

Gurney Heater Mfg. Co 342 

Hale, Charles F 197 

Hall, William Franklin 281 

Hallowell, James Mott 467 

Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., John . . 225 

Harbor views 14, 183 

Harris, Hon. Robert 398 

Harrison, Captain Roden S 494 

Harvard Gate 254 

Harvard Medical School 291-293 

Harvard Monument, John 133 

Harvard Square 281) 

Harvard Trust Company 219 

Harvard Yard 231 

Havens, George W 238 

Haymarket Square 101 

Heard, Nathan 425 

Hellier, Charles E 449-450 

Higgins, Hon. John J 431 

Hill, Donald M 432 

Hollander & Co., L. P 335 

Holmes, Dr. Oliver W 286 



Page 

Holmes, Otis W 224 

Home for Aged Men 423 

Home of the Boston Lodge of Elks 119 

Hood & Sons, H. P 510-511 

Hooper, S. Henry 469 

Hoosac Tunnel '1 

Hopewell, John 336 

Hornblower & \\'eeks 223 

Horticultural Hall 209 

Hosford, John T 242 

Hotel Bellevue 487 

Hotel Brunswick 488 

Hotel Canterbury 493 

Hotel Essex 487 

Hotel Nantasket 493 

Hotel Napoli 491 

Hotel Oxford 493 

Hotel Puritan 486 

Hotel Somerset 485 

Hotel Victoria 492 

House of the Har\.ircl Club 117 

Howard, Edward 473 

Howe, John C 377 

Howe & French 376-377 

Hewlett & Co., Albert D 337 

Hunt, Hon. Freeman 404 

Hunt, Thomas 453 

Hurlburt, Henry F 479 

Hurlburt, Jr., Henry F 477 

Hutchins, Franklin H 243 

Irish, William H 435 

Isaac, William T 342 

Ives, Frederick M 469 

Jackson, James 221 

Jackson, Dr. James 286 

Jackson, Hon. James F 407 

John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co 225 

Johnson, Arthur S 192 

Jones, Boyd B 434 

Jones, Dr. Everett 303 

Jones, Jerome -^41 

Jones Ltd., William C 334 

Jordan, Noah W 218 

Joslin, Ralph E 478 

Joy, Fred 469 

Joyce, John 340 

Joy's Building 134 

Julien House 57 

Kellogg, Harold F 242 

Kelsey, Harr>- S 503-504 

Kiernan, Patrick B 409 

Kimball, Dr. Samuel A 302 

King's Chapel -57 

King's Chapel Burying-ground 133 

Ladd, Sherman W -^58 

Ladd, Walter A 456 



532 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Page 

Lafayette Mall 132, 147 

Lake in the Public Garden 91 

Lawrence, Hon. William B 441 

Leigh, George T 341 

Leveroni, Hon, Frank 402 

Little, CM. 502 

Logan, Hon. Edward 1 435 

Logan, James F 368-370 

Lothrop \- Bennett 323 

Lovell, Dr. Joseph 286 

Lovett, Albert J 243 

Lowell, John 445 

Ludden, Charles M 452 

Lyall, George 277 

Lying-in Hospital 289 

Maclaurin, Richard C 228 

Magrath, Dr. Geo. B 304 

Maguire Co., James W 372 

Main, Charles T 196 

Manning Company, Joseph P 368-370 

Mansfield, Gideon M 281 

Marston Restaurants, The 500-501 

Marvin, Winthrop L 347 

Masonic Temple 261 

Massachusetts General Hospital .... 285, 288 
Massachusetts Homoeopathic Hospital . . 290-291 

Masters, J. Edward 275 

Mather, Increase 32 

Mayberry, George L 477 

McCall, Gov. Samuel W 188 

McClung, Robert G 446 

McConnell, James E 439 

McConnell, Joseph W 439 

McDonald, Hon. James W 430 

McDonough, Charles A 478 

McKay, Donald 82 

McKee, William E 427 

McManus, Hon. Edward 1 401 

McNary, Hon. William S 193 

McNutt, Robert R 366-367 

Merchants Exchange 49 

Merchants National Bank 217 

Metropolitan Railroad Co 110 

Middlesex Fells 156 

Miles, George W 365 

Mixter, Dr. Samuel J 299 

Moore, Edward M 455 

Morse, Edwin S 275, 276 

Morse, Hon. William A 410 

Morton, Dr. W. T. G 286 

Meyer, Orlando C 276 

Munroe, James P 375 

Murphy, James R 448-449 

Nantasket Hotel 493 

Napoli Hotel 491 



Page 
Nawn, Harry P 99 

Neal, John Frederick 477 

Nelson, Julius 458 

New England Bureau of Tests 361 

New England Conservatory of Music .... 260 

New England Fish Company 516-517 

New England Hospital for Women 290 

New Old South Church 163, 167 

New TechnologN- 228 

N. Y., N. H. & Hartford Ry 108-109 

Nickerson, Augustus 278 

Noble, William M 478 

Noodle's or Maverick's Island 85 

North Station 109 

Norton, Fred L 436-437 

Norwood, Hon. C. Augustus 432 

Nowell, Dr. Howard W 305 

Noyes, Bernice J 45 1 

O'Brien, John H 319 

O'Connell, Patrick A 335 

O'Connell, His Eminence, William, Cardinal . . 176 

Old Brattle Street Church 162 

Old Brick Church 57 

Old Corner Bookstore 126, 205 

Old Fairbanks House 342 

Old Feather Store 25 

Old Granary Burying-ground 132 

Old National Theatre 50 

Old North Church 141 

Old Ship Church 509 

Old South Church 50 

Old South Meetinghouse 136 

Old State House 1 

O'Meara, Stephen 195 

Osgood, Charles E 375 

Overlook at Franklin Park 155 

Oxford, Hotel 493 

Palmer, Edward H 444-445 

Park Square 57 

Park Street Church 145,21.^ 

Park Street View 11 

Parker House 48 

Parker, Wilder & Co 336 

Parkhurst, Lewis 332-333 

Pastene, Jerome J 470" 

Paul Revere House 36 

Paul Revere Map of Boston 31 

Paul's Bridge 482 

Pearce, Arthur P 495 

Pemberton Square 387, 393 

Perkins, Harry E 452 

Perkins Institute for the Blind ... 86, 146, 235 

Perkins, Col. T. H 96 

Pevey, Gilbert A. A 453 

Phillips, Benjamin 463 

Phillips, John 43 

Pinkham, Austin M 473 

Piper, Henry A 278 

Plymouth Rock 147 



INDEX 



533 



I'opc, Col. Albert A 264-266 

Porter, Alexander S 24,? 

Post Office 39 

Potter, Henry Staples 364-365 

Powers, Leland T 236 

Powers, Hon. Samuel L 405 

Powers School of the Spoken Word . . . 236-237 

Powers, Wilbur H 461 

Pratt & Co., Daniel S 31.S-317 

Preface 6 

Prest, Edward J 242 

Prest, William M 218 

Pride, Edwin L 275 

Proctor, Thomas W' 415 

Public Garden 47, ,S7, 153, 157 

Public Library 52, 207, 472 

Pureoxia Company, The 338 

Purington, Frank H 239 

Puritan Hotel 486 

Putnam, James L 482 

Quincy House 49 

Quincy, Josiah 44 

Ranney, Fletcher 459 

Ransom, Dr. Eliza T 306-307 

Ratigan, Thomas H 238 

Reggio, Dr. A. William 308 

Renwick, William G 462 

Revere Beach 83, 373 

Revere House, The 494 

Revere House, Paul 134 

Rice, Arthur N 474 

Rich, Albert F 517 

Rich, Isaac 55 

Richardson, Henn,- T 471 

Ricker & Sons, Hiram 506 

Riley, Hon. Thomas P 399 

Roberts, Leonard G 408 

Rockwood, William D 377 

Rogers, William B 228 

Rollins, Weld A 435 

Rosentwist, Birger G. A 340 

Rowley, Clarence W 462 

Rueter, Conrad J 466 

Russell, Arthur H 455 

Russell, Thomas H 455 

St. Botolph Club 122 

St. Elizabeth's Hospital 289 

St. John's Theological Seminary 233 

St. Mary's Infant Asylum 289 

Saltmarsh, George A 447-448 

Sawyer, Henry C 480 

Sawyer, Hollis H 277 

Scenes on Bay State Street Ry 105 

Scharton, William R. . . 420 

School Street 51 

Schulz, Robert II. 448 

Scollay Square of 1910 187 



Page 

Searle, Charles 1' 467 

Sears Building 270 

Seaverns, Clarence P 377 

Second Church .^■'i. 164 

Sergeant, Charles S 1'''' 

Sheehan, Hon. Joseph A 401 

Sherburne, Charles W 370 

Sherman, Herbert 1 361 

Sherman, Roland H 414 

ShiUaber, William G 218 

Simmons College 233 

Smart, W'ilfred H 481 

Smith, Louis C 450 

Smith, Timothy 334 

Somerset Club 50, 120 

Somerset Hotel 485 

South Station 107 

Southard, Hon. Louis C 464 

Sparrow, Gustavus H 281 

Spaulding, Dana E 504 

Spaulding System 504 

Spoffard, John C 240-241 

Sprague, Charles H 424-425 

Sprague, Homer B 424 

Spring, James W 429 

Stackpole, Pierpont L 441 

Stanwood, Charles E 279 

State Street 34, 35 39, 

State Street Trust Company 221 

Stearns, Hon. George M 464-465 

Steinert, Ale.xander 259^ 

Stinson, Alvah L 458 

Stock Exchange '3 

Stodder, Charles F 378 

Stone, Edward C 464 

Stone, Mark 468 

Storer, Oscar 433 

Stover, Hon. Willis W 400 

Stratton, Charles E 449 

Suffolk County Court House 391 

Suffolk Law School 234 

Sullivan, Hon. E. Mark 403 

Sullivan, Hon. Michael H 404 

Sullivan, Patrick F 97 

Summer Street 185 

Sutcliffe, F. Lucas 325 

Swampscott Scene 160 

Sweetser, George A 440 

Swift, Francis H 366-367 

Swift, Henry W 439 

Swift-McXutt Co 366 

Symphony Hall 210,249 

Talbot, Edmund H 440 

Taylor, Edward 1 467 

Teeling, Hon. Richard S 443 

Temple, Adath Israel 266 

Tennant, Frederick A 451 

Thompson, Marshall P 451 

Thompson, Milton S 377 

Tinkham, Hon. George H 429- 



^34 



THE BOOK OF BOSTON 



Page 

Tomlhorde Cafe 495-496 

Towle, Loren D 244 

Town House 34 

Train, Enoch 80 

Tremont Street 40 

Tremont Street Mall 42 

Trinity Church 171 

Tucker, George F 470-471 

Tufts, Bowen 221 

Tufts College 294 

Tuttle, Lucius 110-111 

Twomey, Jeremiah A 482 

Ulrich, Dr. Helmuth 304 

Union Club 120 

University Club 122 

United Shoe Machinery Co 350-357 

United States Custom House 212 

United States Hotel 49 

Vahey, Hon. James H 456 

Victoria Hotel 492 

View from Cupola of State House 46 

View from Custom House Tower 395 

Vitelli, James A 408 

Waldorf Lunch System 503-504 

Walker, George H 507 

Walker-Gordon Laboratory Co 507 

Walker, Henry L 194 

Walker Lithograph & Publishing Co 507 

Walsh, Ex-Governor David 1 191 

Walsh, Joseph P 425 

Walton, David H 497 

Walton Lunch System 497-499 

Walworth Manufacturing Co 382-383 

Wardwell, J. Otis 412-413 

Wardwell, Sheldon E 471 

Warren, Bentley W 437 



Page 

Warien Brothers & Co 379 

Warren, Dr. John 285 

Warren, Dr. Joseph 285 

Warren, Joseph F 437 

Washburn, Dr. George H 302 

Washington Elm 137 

Washington Statue 153 

Washington Street 43, 75, 103 

Waterman, Frank S 380 

Wellington, Arthur J 452-453 

Wcilman, Hon. Arthur H 415 

Wentworth Institute 234 

Wesselhoeft, Dr. Conrad 298 

Weyburn, Lyon 426-427 

West, Alfred L 462 

Wharton, Hon. William F 428 

Wheelwright, George W 336 

Wheelwright, John T 479 

Whitley, Samuel H 470 

Whiting & Sons, D 370 

Whitman, William 343, 347 

Widener Library at Harvard 127 

Wiggin, George W 470 

Wiggin, Joseph 466 

Wilson, Butler R 472 

Wilson, George L 454 

Winslow Bros. cS: Smith Co 330 

Winslow, Sidney W 351 

Women's City Club 124 

Woodbury, C. J. H 197, 198 

Wood, William M 327-330 

Woods Machine Co., S. A 360 

Wright, John G 324 

Wyman, Alphonso A 460 

Young's Hotel 49 

Young Men's Christian Assn. Bldg 211 

Zottoli, Frank M 476 

Zottoli, Joseph T 480 



H 451 85 il 



















^ <^ *^^^' "^ <i^ '-^ 





^^•n*.. 











*<V V» 




^'"•'. 

























„,^ ■» or d« • S^» « . * 'P '^feWiJr'j <(V ^ '^ ^ - 












^0' ■\/'?^fv'^ "o,''-^'^%o^ -%*•^^^.^^ 




V"^" 



•i^v 






^^0^ 




ov" 



^°-n*.. 











•Mq^ 




oV 



^°-n^. 




'-^0^ 






.«* 



















-■^ -J- . Ctt 















J' ^'^ 






■^o. 



.^^^^« 







,<?•' 










^^"^^^ 



v^^ 



.-*► . 



c- K 







c" ♦ 



J* . 



:;«»:•. %,*^' • 



1' •*> 






.J 



::^!rv. ■•^. _.v" ''i^^^\ ^^c*^' ^:^ 



^•l^^ 



-'> *^ '.1 



o 

































^^ .^ 



.0' 




\r ... "^ 












M-^ J^^^K 



c ♦ 













*■" "^^ 


















t- 



/\ 



' ^'c- 






.!i" ^ 



^\/.. V^^-/ \-^'\»»^ v---"^'-/ \-^^\,*' %-•... 

,,.' -m^: \,/ .•^■, %/ .-^^^ \./ .• . 



^'^•, 



>/^. 



01 -o. , • '\ 

'. "^ A^ V '-n* ,^ ♦ 








.-^^"-^ 



* -f 




-o<^ 




'f'^O^ 






3pV\ 



%>'-..•',/ ^'^^'Z *^/^-\/ % ....%o^ ^,.^ 

■% ^ * /\ ■•••^ .**"*-^, •w /\ '• y^*-. 



%v 




,0^ ,v.-?^;'^ Oo 



V' 







HECKMAN 

BINDERY INC. 

1985 

N. MANCHESTER, 
^S»^ INDIANA 46962 






<i* o « , •<« • • 










» .*" 




"-..^^ 



X:jr^' .^ 









